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Daddy, When Is Mama Comin Home?

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Daddy, When Is Mama Comin Home?
Studio album by
Big Jack Johnson
Released1990
GenreBlues
Length63:59
LabelEarwig
Producer
  • Michael Robert Frank
  • Big Jack Johnson
Big Jack Johnson chronology
Rooster Blues
(1987) 		Daddy, When Is Mama Comin Home?
(1990) 		We Got to Stop This Killin'
(1996)

Daddy, When Is Mama Comin Home? is an album by the American musician Big Jack Johnson, released in 1990.[1][2] He supported the album with a North American tour that included shows with Frank Frost.[3] The title track is performed by Johnson in Robert Palmer's film Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads.[4]

Production

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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]

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[13]
MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide[5]
The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings[10]
The Philadelphia Inquirer[11]

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]

In 1994, Rolling Stone praised "Johnson's audacious originals."[17] MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide concluded that Daddy, When Is Mama Comin Home? "works extremely well as a protest album".[5] The Star Tribune called "I Slapped My Wife in the Face" "startling" and "sorrowful".[18]

Track listing

[edit]
Daddy, When Is Mama Comin Home? track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Thirteen Chillun"4:38
2."I'm a Big Boy Now"3:31
3."Oh Darling"5:11
4."Doodley Squat"5:47
5."Crawdad Hole"6:13
6."Chinese Blues"5:19
7."Daddy, When Is Mama Comin Home?"7:58
8."I Slapped My Wife in the Face"4:49
9."Northwest Airline Blues"3:59
10."Goin Back to Mississippi"5:54
11."Mr. U.S. A.I.D.S."4:51
12."United States Got Us in a Bad Shape"5:49
Total length:63:59

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Cornell, Tom (October 22, 1995). "Musician drives out Delta blues". The Grand Rapids Press. p. G6.
  2. ^ McLennan, Scott (December 21, 1995). "Big Jack prospers with proliferation of everyone's blues". Telegram & Gazette. p. C5.
  3. ^ Hevrdejs, Judy (September 14, 1990). "If it's blues you're after...". Friday. Chicago Tribune. p. 2.
  4. ^ Pitman, R. (September 11, 1994). "Deep Blues". The Video Librarian. Poulsbo.
  5. ^ a b c MusicHound Blues: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1998. pp. 190–191.
  6. ^ a b Mayfield, Panny (September 22, 1990). "Big Jack Johnson launches new album, tours Belgium". The Clarksdale Press Register. p. 3A.
  7. ^ a b Joyce, Mike (January 13, 1991). "Jack Johnson: 'Daddy, When Is Mama Comin' Home?'". The Washington Post. p. G5.
  8. ^ Dahl, Bill (February 24, 1995). "Big Jack Johnson Packs a Delta-Drenched Wallop". Friday. Chicago Tribune. p. P.
  9. ^ Russell, Tony (June 2, 2011). "Obituary: Big Jack Johnson: One of the last of the rural deep south juke-joint bluesmen". The Guardian. p. 35.
  10. ^ a b The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings. Penguin Books. 2006. p. 316.
  11. ^ a b DeLuca, Dan (February 17, 1991). "Blues". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 10G.
  12. ^ Skelly, Richard (December 9, 1994). "The ballad of Big Jack". On the Go. The Central New Jersey Home News. p. 4.
  13. ^ "Daddy, When Is Mama Comin' Home Review by Bill Dahl". AllMusic. Retrieved September 13, 2024.
  14. ^ Hoekstra, Dave (September 14, 1990). "Let's rock with the Jelly Roll Kings". Weekend Plus. Chicago Sun-Times. p. 7.
  15. ^ Heim, Chris (September 14, 1990). "Frank Frost and Big Jack Johnson". Friday. Chicago Tribune. p. O.
  16. ^ Wynn, Ron (November 2, 1990). "Hard-edged, undiluted Delta blues on new discs". The Commercial Appeal. p. E6.
  17. ^ Evans, Paul (April 7, 1994). "Rollin' & tumblin' — The Oil Man by Big Jack Johnson". Rolling Stone. No. 679. p. 74.
  18. ^ Surowicz, Tom (October 30, 2000). "This Oil Man's a gas". Star Tribune. p. E1.
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