Josie-Anne Huard, better known to her fellow folkies as "Mama Jo", announced this week that after over 5 great years on the air, she is ending her radio show "Univers Folk". The show aired on CHOQ.fm, UQAM's radio station, and each week Josie-Anne would play great folk music and interview (mostly) local folk artists. It was quite simply the best place for a folk artist to get on radio in Montreal and do an interview. Mama Jo is one of this city's most dedicated supporters of folk music, and did so much not only for local folk artists and folk music fans, but also folk music venues.
Time and time again when there was a show booked at the Centre St-Ambroise (where I've been program director for 3 years), I would notice that the artist was appearing on Univers Folk that week. Her support for the local folk music scene is almost unparalleled and her show will be missed dearly by the community.
A big thanks to Simon and everyone at UQAM radio (CHOQ.fm) who recognized Josie-Anne's talent and passion and kept her on the air the past 5 years. For any of you reading this that did not get to hear Univers Folk, please have a listen to the archives while they're still there: http://www.choq.fm/universfolk.html
And thankfully Mama Jo will still be talking about her musical discoveries through her Twitter feed, which you can follow here: http://twitter.com/universfolk
So Mama Jo, THANK YOU for 5 wonderful years of folk music radio and for all of your incredible support for the Montreal folk music community, we are forever grateful :)
Cheers,
Dave "Daddy" Cool