Road Trip Album Picks: Mitch Hedberg's "Strategic Grill Locations"

WHAT: Debut stand-up album from the late comic
LABEL: Comedy Central Records (2002), self-published CD (1999)
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: More jokes
WHERE TO FIND IT: Better record stores

"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it."

Some albums lend themselves to road trips-- this is not one of them. Mitch's delivery on this, his first CD, is more reserved and mellow plus there's music from bass player Chuck Savage playing along with the jokes for some reason I don't quite get.

It's still obscenely funny and packed with one-liners like "I got an ant farm, them fellas don't grow shit" and "I got dressed up for the CD." That's just in the first track, the whole album is packed with 53 minutes of jokes. Considering there's a new one every few seconds, it shows just what an amazing talent this guy was.

This CD was actually quite difficult to get for a long time, and was still hard to find until after Hedberg passed away until around 2005.

It's much more subdued than his other two releases, and the overall quality of the sound seems a little on the cruddy side. The applause seems to be as loud or louder than Hedberg at times, which is of course not his fault. It just makes for difficult listening if the pavement sound is particularly high.