Americana artist John Francis O’Mara is poised to release his third LP entitled ‘Forbidden Hymns’. Produced by Grammy Award winning producer Ken Coomer (drummer for Wilco, Uncle Tupelo), the forthcoming album also features Kenny Vaughan (Lucinda Williams, Emmy Lou Harris, Marty Stuart), and Dave Roe (Johnny Cash, Ray Lamontagne, Dwight Yoakam).

JF is the recipient of two national songwriting awards from ASCAP. He has performed upon invitation for the United Nations summit toward eradicating poverty. He has given concerts in stadiums and in subway stations, in cathedrals and pubs, at protests and in prisons. Performing in some of the most prestigious listening rooms in the US and Europe, JF has played an average of 250 dates per year for over 10 years. JF played along with George Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Roseanne Cash, etc for the inaugural Johnny Cash Music Festival at the University of Arkansas Stadium. He also was one of the headliners for the Johnny Cash Flower Picking Festival in Starkville, Mississippi.

JF’s first national full-length album, ‘The Better Angels’(Dualtone), was produced by Grammy Award recipient, John Carter Cash (son of Johnny and June Carter) in the fabled Cash Cabin Studio, where Johnny Cash recorded much of the ‘American Recordings.’ The single ‘Johnny Cash on the Radio’ climbed to number 19 on the Americana Music Charts in the US. The Swiss single, ‘Miracle’, from his forthcoming album, was released exclusively exclusively in Switzerland, where it received widespread national radio attention and was featured as ‘Single of the Week’ on Radiozürisee.

JF tours extensively in the US and Europe, especially in Ireland (his beloved ancestral homeland), and in Switzerland where his songs have gained widespread radio play. JF has shared stages with Loretta Lynn, Kris Kristofferson, George Jones, Mavis Staples, Odetta, Suzanne Vega, Sturgill Simpson, Tommy Emmanuel, Ray Lamontagne, Amos Lee, Rosanne Cash, Josh Ritter, Langhorne Slim, Rickie Lee Jones, Tom Paxton, Rachael Yamagata, Mary Gauthier, James McMurtry, Rufus Wainwright, Justin Townes Earle, Steve Earle, Indigo Girls, M.Ward, Glen Hansard, Old 97’s, Over the Rhine, Sinead O’Connor, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Garth Hudson (The Band).

John Francis O’Mara is also a theological scholar and an Episcopalian Priest. 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. He was ordained to the Sacred Order of Priests in December of 2018 and he is currently serving Grace Episcopal Church in Madison, Wisconsin, www.gracechurchmadison.org. In his priestly vocation, he is known as John Francis Maher.