The United States of America, led by respected modern classical avant garde musician Joseph Byrd, cut a wide swath through the 1968 world of rock, just then comfortably settling in to its backwoods dreams of country-rock to find the debut U.S.A. album howling like an infant terrible on its front doorstep. At the center of the U.S.A.'s fiercely experimental universe were the icy-cool vocals of the beautiful Dorothy Moskowitz, keeping this tumultuous sound from spinning out-of-control in every direction. Almost predictably, the U.S.A. disbanded before it could record a second album, but its brilliant, self-titled effort was certainly one for the ages.
