Daddy, When Is Mama Comin Home? was produced by Michael Robert Frank and Johnson.[5] It was recorded in Chicago, with Johnson taking a year to work on it.[6] Frost played harmonica on the album; Sam Carr contributed on drums.[7] Palmer wrote the album liner notes.[6] The album's sound was more polished, with Johnson using a horn section on some tracks.[8] "Mr. U.S. A.I.D.S." was one of the first blues songs to address the impact of AIDS.[9] "Doodley Squat" was influenced by Latin funk.[10] "Northwest Airline Blues" is a salute to Johnson's preferred airline.[11] "United States Got Us in a Bad Shape" is about joblessness and failing family farms.[12]
The Chicago Sun-Times considered the album "a purist's delight", writing that "ardent blues fans also will be emancipated by the agitated guitar of Johnson, who plays like he puts a chord in a vise and twists it until it is squeezed of all emotion."[14] The Chicago Tribune determined that Johnson "winds up in some bizarre but beautiful blues ozone created by his stinging guitar lines and genuinely strange and frequently comic detours into Caribbean and Chinese blues, yodeling and free verse."[15]The Washington Post labeled Daddy, When Is Mama Comin Home? "one of the most original, topical and idiosyncratic blues albums ever released."[7]The Commercial Appeal noted "Johnson's booming, resilient voice and choppy, biting guitar".[16]
