Diyet and The Love Soldiers come to the Empress

Diyet and The Love Soldiers will perform at the Empress Theatre on Oct. 12 as the second show in the 2023-’24 Center Stage  Series.

The performance on Thursday, Oct. 12 starts at 7:30 p.m.

Diyet and The Love Soldiers is alternative country, folk, roots and traditional with catchy melodies and stories deeply rooted in Diyet’s Indigenous world view and northern life.

Diyet sings in both English and Southern Tutchone — her native language — and plays bass guitar.

Diyet  is backed by the Love Soldiers: husband and collaborator, Robert van Lieshout on acoustic guitar, drums and percussion, and Juno Award-winning producer Bob Hamilton on electric guitar, pedal steel and mandolin.

This multi-instrumental trio from the Yukon has a sound that can fill a big stage or capture an intimate room.

Diyet was born in a tent and spent her childhood on the ancestral lands of the Kluane First Nation people in the Yukon.

Coming from a family rooted in traditions but tempered with a good sense of adventurous hippie attitudes, Diyet has created a musical presence that is as diverse as her Southern Tutchone, Tlingit, Japanese and Scottish heritage.

Diyet discovered her voice singing on the school bus, went on to acquire a degree in music, then became a published songwriter in Vancouver, B.C.

When the pull of the North was too strong, she packed her bags, and her Dutch husband, moving back to her village of 90 people without a plan or a pub in which to play.

The result of this unlikely career move has been international collaborations, extensive touring and three acclaimed albums — The Breaking Point, When You Were King and Diyet and The Love Soldiers.

Their third album, released in 2018, received nominations for Folk Album of the Year at the Indigenous Music Awards, Indigenous Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards, and Indigenous Songwriter of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.

During the last decade, Diyet and the Love Soldiers have performed across Canada and Europe, with highlights including major folk, jazz, world and multi-disciplinary festivals.

Living with her feet firmly planted in two worlds, Diyet’s adventurous and sometimes chaotic life is on full display in her music. She often says, “Yesterday, fishing for our dinner on the ice; the next day, on the stage singing for you.”

Tickets to see Diyet and The Love Soldiers at the Empress are available at www.macleodempress.com, at 403-553-4404 or at the Box Office on Main Street.