When the Yukon Came to Quatt

Diyet & The Love Soldiers
Live at Quatt Village Hall, Shropshire
14 May 2026

On the road between Kidderminster and Bridgnorth, just over the Worcestershire border into Shropshire, lies the village of Quatt. Quatt is home to only around two hundred people and the majority of them seemed to have turned up at the village hall on a pleasant May evening, like me, to enjoy some live music provided by Diyet and The Love Soldiers.

What’s remarkable about this is that singer/bassist Diyet and her band The Love Soldiers had travelled all the way from Canada’s Yukon territory – a journey of over 4,000 miles – on a tour that took in various parts of rural England before moving onto Belgium and the Netherlands. Diyet grew up in the ancestral lands of the Kluane First Nation people and her songs reflect her indigenous world view. She sings both in English and in her native language of Southern Tutchone.

Her multi-instrumental backing band is made up of Diyet’s husband and musical collaborator Robert van Lieshout (who, impressively, plays acoustic guitar and drums at the same time) and award-winning producer Bob Hamilton (who switches effortlessly between electric guitar, pedal steel and mandolin.)

I wasn’t sure what the Shropshire audience would make of Diyet’s blend of Americana, alt-country and folk but they seemed to love it and the songs relating to Diyet’s First Nation heritage – and those sung in Southern Tutchone – received an equally rapturous reaction. Some of the songs are hard-hitting and deeply moving. In ‘Give Me a Reason’ Diyet sings of “the girls that are stolen ...and those that know something” and “for those who stop believing because justice is fleeting.”

The enterprising people who help run the Quatt Village Hall and organise events such as this (with the support of organisations like ArtsAlive) are to be congratulated for hosting such a remarkable band as Diyet and The Love Soldiers and the audience were rewarded with an emotional and uplifting performance.

Diyet & The Love Soldiers' new acoustic EP, 'Seeds Of Dreaming - ‘Acoustic Edition’ is an exclusive release for the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands in celebration of their spring 2026 tour.