Mama who sang about husband caught short! (4-8)
I believe the answer is:
cash-strapped
'short' is the definition.
'mama who sang about husband caught' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'about' could be 'ca' (abbreviation for circa) and 'ca' is present in the answer.
'husband' could be 'h' (abbreviation) and 'h' is located in the answer.
'caught' could be 'trapped' (trapping is a kind of catching) and 'trapped' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cash-strapped that I've seen before include "Extremely short of money" , "Short of money (informal)" .)