Diyet grew up in a village of 90 residents in the Kluane region of the Yukon.
While the musician has travelled and lived in many places since, she is constantly drawn back to the mountainous region her family has called home for many generations.
For her Jan. 22 Music from the Edges concert at Campbell River’s Tidemark theatre, she is hoping to impart some of the magic she feels when in the north.
“Where we live in the Kluane region, it’s a landscape that’s almost indescribable until you see it yourself,” she said. “Up high in altitude in these really big young mountains, there’s a sense of magnetism.
“I really want the audience – especially because it’s also online - to have a sense of where I’m from, and maybe feel some of that connection that I do in their own way.”
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She will be singing in both English as well as Southern Tutchone (her native language), and playing bass guitar.
Joining her on stage will be the Love Soldiers, who are made up of her husband, Robert van Lieshout (acoustic guitar, drums & percussion) and Juno Award winning producer, Bob Hamilton (electric guitar, pedal steel & mandolin).
“The process in which we get to write and create together is a really magical experience,” Diyet said. “We all know each other very well, but all three of us have very diverse backgrounds and the three points of view show in all the music.”
Their last album, the self-titled Diyet and the Love Soldiers, was released in 2018. It 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 this concert run which will begin in Campbell River – and hopefully take the group to Alberta and Saskatchewan – Diyet said she will be experimenting with some new material.
I like to play new stuff before we record,” she said.
“We’re trying a couple new tunes out to see how they sit with the audience and hopefully we’ll be back in the studio before the end of 2022.”
They will also be joined by Jim Byrnes, who Diyet called ‘an iconic bluesman.’
Tickets for the live-streamed event can be found on the Tidemark Theatre’s website.
ronan.odoherty@campbellrivermirror.com
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