I had never heard of John Francis O’Mara but the title of his new album, Forbidden Hymns, had me jumping at the chance for a pre-release copy. Released Oct. 10 the record was Produced by Ken Coomer (Grammy-award winning producer and drummer for Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Steve Earle, among others) and “lives in the Americana/Alt Country/Rock/Folk wheelhouse,” according to O’Mara’s website.
That wheelhouse has been my jam since the 1990s when I was in grad school in Atlanta, GA, where I got to watch a bourgeoning community of Americana/rock/folk artists play at Eddie’s Attic and Little Five Points Pub. We saw them play and we saw them around town—the Indigo Girls, Shawn Mullins, Michelle Malone, Jennifer Nettles (whose then-band was Soul Miner’s Daughter; her dad was a minister), Gerard McHugh, Dede Vogt, Kristen Hall, Caroline Aiken, to name a few.
That music spoke to me and for me as the queer daughter of a United Methodist minister, disenfranchised from the people I grew up with but seeking a spiritual community and concerned about social justice. Especially Michelle Malone’s “Teen Lament” (“If Jesus is coming, he better come on…”), the Indigo Girls’ still-relevant “Shame on You” about police hunting down immigrants, and the 1995 production of the Indigo Girls and Friends’ Jesus Christ Super Star where Amy played Jesus to the consternation of so many in the “Christ-haunted” South.
I couldn’t wait to hear, in our current moment, an album of forbidden hymns. In anticipation, my mind spun with the possibilities: maybe a song referencing “Onward Christian Soldiers” as an indictment of Christian nationalism, or a song about Mary that spoke to the increasing constraints on women’s health.
Alas, I’ve been listening to the album for over two weeks, most of that time trying to figure out what in the world to say about it. The music is terrific, featuring a host of musicians who have backed up well-known artists like Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakom, John Mellencamp, and even Johnny Cash. But the lyrics fall short of the album title—a compelling title that came with expectations.
Aside from one or two gems like “If you can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,” and “another brother laying in a chalked-out line,” the lyrics, overall, sounded like someone who had experienced a very meaningful interior transformation but didn’t have the literary acumen to express it. On first listen I thought, “derivative.” But I had to dig deeper. Maybe it was me and I’m not the target audience.
My first “forbidden hymns” research turned up much coverage—specifically, coverage of a list of hymns banned in October 2024 (just last year). According to the National Catholic Register, “Bishop W. Shawn McKnight listed a dozen commonly used but ‘doctrinally problematic’ Catholic songs that will be ‘absolutely forbidden’ in the diocese after Nov. 1.” Even more interesting, one of the hymns banned by Bishop McKnight is “Ashes,” by Tom Conry. O’Mara’s Forbidden Hymns album includes a track, “Ashes, Ashes.” But as far as I can tell, there is no intentional connection.
With a title of Forbidden Hymns released on the one-year anniversary of the actually forbidden hymns, it felt like a missed opportunity. That said, October may soon be considered “Forbidden Hymns Month,” because in October 2023 a full-length album Forbidden Hymn, was released. According to AI, this Forbidden Hymn, “combines heavy doom and sludge metal with resonant riffs and powerful rhythms.”
Further research into O’Mara himself turned up surprising—and reassuring—results. The son of an Episcopal priest, according to his website, “John Francis O’Mara is also a theological scholar. He received his Master’s of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2017, and a Master’s of Sacred Theology from The General Seminary in New York City, 2018. His focus of research was in Liberation Theology, and Post-Colonial Literature and Theory. JF [sic] is an ordained Episcopalian priest.”
In 2006 he won the ASCAP Foundation Sammy Cahn Award, given each year to a promising and aspiring lyricist, for his song “Love Came to Me Dressed in Red.” In 2010 he won the ASCAP Foundation Jay Gorney Award, given annually to an “emerging” ASCAP member or unaffiliated songwriter or songwriting team,” for “Who.”
I listened to the award-winning songs, “Who” and “My Love Comes to Me Dressed in Red.” They are really good!
But, Forbidden Hymns? I still struggled with a title that felt like, if not dissonance, then “all hat and the idea of cattle.” On O’Mara’s Substack, he writes: “‘Forbidden Hymns’ [sic] encompasses Social Justice anthems for our times, empowering Gospel-influenced spiritual songs, and my signature brand of achingly haunting, forlorn love songs.”
Clearly a talented musician with great relationships and connections in the music world, O’Mara comes across on his website and Substack as well-educated with a warm heart and deep sense of righteous indignation about social injustice, especially in the United States in 2025.
The album is good, it just wasn’t life-changing in the ways that I wanted it to be based on the title.
Ironically, Melissa Etheridge’s new single “Don’t You Want a Woman,” a real “forbidden hymn” about Eve getting to be “the woman [she]wants to be,” dropped Oct. 10, the same day as O’Mara’s album. (See more from me on Melissa Etheridge here.)
I’ve been listening to my own list of “forbidden hymns” for years and my playlist of them includes (but is not limited to!):
- “Shame on You” from the Indigo Girls, written by Amy Ray, and featuring Steve Earle
- “Teen Lament,” by Michelle Malone
- “Jonas and Ezekiel,” by the Indigo Girls (really anything by the Indigo Girls)
- “Medicated Magdalene,” by Michelle Malone/Band De Soleil
- “Preacher’s Daughter,” by Michelle Malone
- “Silent Legacy,” by Melissa Etheridge
- “What if God Was One of Us,” by Joan Osborne
- “Angel from Montgomery,” sung by Bonnie Raitt, written by John Prine
- “Angel,” Sarah McLachlan
- “Esther, Ruth, and Rahab,” by Flamy Grant
- “What Did You Drag Me Into,” by Flamy Grant
- “Good Day,” by Flamy Grant (really most of the Bible Belt Baby album)
- “Hallelujah,” sung by k.d. lang, written by Leonard Cohen
- “I Know Where I’ve Been,” sung by Queen Latifah, Hairspray soundtrack
- The documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, the untold story
As for O’Mara’s Forbidden Hymns album? Give it a listen. Some reviewers have loved it, here, and here.
I’ll close this post by paraphrasing Richard Brody from a recent review in The New Yorker: “Almost always, an album worth critiquing at length, even negatively, is one worth listening to.”