Powder Burns was partly recorded with extra power generators in a deserted New Orleans studio just after the floods caused by Hurricane Katrina.

During the album recording in 2005, Greg Dulli was aided by Manuel Agnelli, of the Italian rock band Afterhours, who co-wrote "My Time (Has Come)" and "The Conversation", the lyrics for which were inspired by the 1974 Francis Ford Coppola film of the same name.

[5][6] "My Time (Has Come)" was first released in 2005 as "White Widow" on Afterhours' Ballads for Little Hyenas, which in turn was co-produced by Dulli.

The same recording sessions yielded the follow-up EP A Stitch in Time, released in December 2006.

It was released to extremely positive reviews, and actor/comedian Denis Leary called it "one of the best rock albums I've heard in 10 years,"[7] also putting the song "Bonnie Brae" in Rescue Me, his Emmy nominated TV series.