In addition to an acclaimed solo career, Manning has been active in a number of bands, including 28th Day (with Cole Marquis), World of Pooh, SF Seals, and The Go-Luckys!.

Manning's early exposure to popular music came from her parents and their friends, who listened to The Beatles, Country Joe & the Fish, The Carpenters, The Moody Blues, Odetta, and Elton John.

While attending Chico State University in 1983, Manning played bass with guitarist/singer Cole Marquis and drummer Michael Cloward in the jangle-pop band 28th Day.

[9] Manning made her first solo album, Lately I Keep Scissors, recorded quickly in 1986 as an 8-track demo, which would eventually be released on Thomas' San Francisco label, Heyday in 1988.

[10][11] Terri Manning recorded some backing vocals and local musician friends pitched in, including drummer/singer Melanie Clarin, who would become a longtime collaborator on future projects.

[12] Trouser Press praised Manning's song-craft, saying her solo work "reveal[s] a songwriter of tremendous lyrical power and breadth of sonic vision.

It made Spin Magazine's top ten list for 1995[14] and won a Bay Area Music Award (BAMMY) for best independent rock album.

[10] Several more diverse cover songs were featured, including Richard Thompson's "End of the Rainbow," The Bevis Frond's "Stain on the Sun," and an obscure Deviants' single from 1969, "First Line (Seven the Row)."

A Salon review referred to Manning's ballad “Isn’t Lonely Lovely?” as the album's standout, describing her lyrics as being set to "a majestic, echoing landscape.

"[23] With her growing catalog, Option Magazine said she had "helped pioneer the type of lo-fi, post-modern folkstress approach later championed by [songwriters like] Juliana Hatfield and Liz Phair.

[25][26] While working on her degree in biology at California State University, Chico in 2008, Manning fronted a new rock band, The Sleaze Tax (a reference to creatures from the 1970s TV show Land of the Lost), with drummer Mike Erpino and bassist Jason Wooten.

She composed music for the Chico theater group The Blue Room, for a play based on Molière's The Misanthrope, with lyrics by playwright Lauren Goldman Marshall.