the album was funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. Most of Anderson's material came from her performance piece, United States, and live versions of some tracks, such as "It Was Up in the Mountains", would also be included in her later 5-LP release, United States Live. This was Anderson's first substantial album release (previously she had only contributed a track or two), and she followed this in 1982 with her first full solo album, Big Science.