Before they became Southern-rock heroes in Drive-By Truckers, singers/guitarists Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood solidified their songwriting partnership in their gritty alt-country/ rock act Adam’s House Cat, gigging at bars around Muscle Shoals, Ala. in the late-1980s. After failing to land a record deal over a few years of hustle, the band recruited producer/ engineer Steve Melton (Traffic, Lynyrd Skynyrd) and recorded their sole LP, Town Burned Down, during a rapid-fire session on Nov. 25, 1990—tracking upstairs from the iconic Muscle Shoals Sound Recording Studio (which Hood’s father, acclaimed session bassist David Hood, co-founded in 1969). The pair’s balance of poignancy and humor had already flowered at this early stage, evident on scorching rockers like “Buttholeville,” in which the narrator aims to escape his deadend town and gobble up eel on the beach. Better yet is the cynical “Kiss My Baby,” which seemingly snarls at music industry suck-ups over twangy art-punk riffs. (“Paid your dues/ Your nose is brown and stinking,” Hood sings. “Seem confused/ I take it you’ve been thinking/ Calloused hands, handshakes with the devil/ Bloody knees, endorsements don’t come free.”) A ragged charm runs throughout the LP, and with the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to ignore the demo-quality vocals and same-y arrangements—Adam’s House Cat probably wouldn’t carry half as much weight if we didn’t know Drive-By Truckers existed. But we do, and Town Burned Down is an intriguing historical footnote for a band that crystalized their creativity down the road.