Manning, Barbara

***"Throughout her illustrious career, Barbara Manning has sung about a wide array of topics—baseball, arson, pies and of course love, in all its splendored and not so splendored ways. Whatever the subject, her voice betrays a good deal of warmth, passion and gravity. The same feeling that recreates Pittsburgh Pirate Dock Ellis’ acid-based no hitter is the same one that delivers chills with the heartbreaking chorus line, 'I’m still crying for you.'

So it should come as no surprise that Manning could write a captivating song about German mathematician Georg Cantor. It also should be expected that she can describe his whole life in three concise verses. What might come as a surprise is how much the song rocks. Aside from her work in the 1990s with the Go-Luckys!, 'Cantor’s Mind Was Rockin’' might be one of the heaviest pieces in her extensive catalog. Before Manning even steps up to the mic, the guitars roar out of the speakers, as if to make sure attention is directed their way.

'Better By Bounds,' the single’s B-side, appeared on 2023’s Charm of Yesterday… Convenience of Tomorrow but it comes in a new version here."