2005 has been a whirlwind year both on and off the stage. Before we dive into ’06 we asked some of our favorite musicians, and some of the scene’s most creative forces, to look back on the rollercoaster year that was 2005, from hurricanes to wars, festivals to music themed cruises. Last week we offered a glance back from eleven notable personalities. This week we catch up with many more performers and those who work behind the scenes as well…

Jake Cinninger (Umphrey’s McGee)

What will you remember most about 2005?
I’ll always remember deeply moving, epic musical moments from tours, like me trying to play AC/DC’s greatest hits on melodica post-show on the bus.

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
Q and Not U

What album has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD Player)?
Steely Dan Aja

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
Secret Machines, Bonnaroo 2005

Jo Jo Hermann (Widespread Panic)

What will you remember most about 2005?
Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
A band from Colorado called Mama’s Cookin

What album has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD Player)?
I have been developing a real affinity for a real music with an African influence and especially listening to the drums on that

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
R.E.M. at the Ryman Auditorium [at the end of 2004]. I just had such a great time.

Mike Gordon (Phish)

What will you remember most about 2005?
The biggest singular thing I was doing was building my home studio, or having it built in my attic level. It’s been thirteen months of construction, now. It’s just one room so it’s got a lot of shapes and materials. And I moved back to Vermont. It has been a very grounding year. Actually (laughs), throwing stuff out for two monthsthat was a monumental thing. I feel like I created a little bit of space going into the future. Getting to play with [Grateful Dead drummer Bill] Kreutzmann at the first rehearsal [for Warren Haynes’s Xmas Jam with Trey Anastasio in SerialPod] that was an incredible thing.

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
I saw Toubab Krewe at a late night set at Bonnaroo and, then again, at Nectar’s in Burlington. I really like African music. Also, in Burlington, they had a djembe player sitting in with them from Africahe was incredible.

What CD has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD player)?
“Stratosphere Boogie” by Speedy West. I keep gravitating back to King Sunny Ade for my hotel parties. Whatever I put onthat is always the final word in my DJing. I’ve listened to Juju Music for years and Odu and recently, I got Synchro System.

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
One really memorable night for me was when Leo [Kottke] and I played in L.A. We had an incredible gig because it was the first time that we realized that playing with the two of us without any amplification or monitors that we would have to be eight inches away from each other. We were about 4 feet and we couldn’t hear so we couldn’t jam. That night we were eight inches away and facing each other and we had an incredible gig. The whole tour changed at that momentwhere the first half there had been some troubles and the second half was great.

Later that nightI had two different cousins from two different families there and I gathered them and 25 other people and took them over to where Leo Neocentelli from the Meters was playing. It was a little place and there weren’t too many people there but as usual, he was just greathe was rocking and we had some drinks and we were all dancing and it was so fun. He called me up onto to the stage and I got to sit in and we played a song. I was just floating in a cloud. I realized after that was over that, in the same night, I got to play with my favorite acoustic guitar and my favorite electric guitar playerexcept maybe Treyin the same night and they’re both named Leo. I have to add a couple more. The night after we played the Fillmore, Gillian Welch played and I’ve seen them lots of time and they were really onit was great. I saw Ivan Neville and Dumpstaphunk in this alley in Austin, Texas before the festival andin particular, their drummer, Raymond Weberwe were just drooling about how funky it was and now he’s playing with Trey. It was just really funky beyond the call of duty. The singing was greatfour great singers in that bandand the grooves were just massive.

Steve Bernstein (_Relix_, Rex Foundation)

What will you remember most about 2005?
The devastation of Hurricane Katrina

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
Jonah Smith

What album has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD Player)?
Donna The Buffalo- Life’s a Ride

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
The From the Big Apple to the Big Easy New Orleans benefit at Radio City Music Hall

Gabby La La

What will you remember most about 2005?
All of the amazing and new experiences I encountered! Wow, I never realized
how many unicorns there were in the United States!

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
I discovered "Hairy Apes BMX" they rock!

What CD has appeared most often in your itunes?
I don’t have an "itunes" whatever that is. My favorite record is the
Nutcracker Suite!

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
My favorite show from this past year has to be "The Flaming Lips" at the All
Good Festival! What a creative bunch of fellas!

Jeff Mattson (Zen Tricksters)

_What will you remember most about 2005? _
We are out on the road so much that when I look back on the year, the landmark events tend to be built around gigs. Playing the Oregon Country Fair again after about five years was truly a highlight. There is nothing like the OCF and I would advise everyone to make a pilgrimage there at some point in their life. Another great memory for 2005 was the privilege of choreographing the music for the five hour Tribute to Jerry Garcia at the Gathering of the Vibes. It was fantastic to work with so many of my musical heroes. That carried over to the joy of working with many of the same folk (Donna Jean, David Nelson, Tom Constanten, Rob Barraco, etc.) at the Black Tie Dye Ball for the Rex Foundation we did here in NYC. In a year when so many things seem to be spiraling downwards (or perhaps I should say backwards?) the genuine goodwill the band and audience were feeling at these events has a very sustaining effect.

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
One artist that caught my ear this year was Bright Eyes. Specifically the acoustic I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning album. I particularly find Conor Oberst’s lyrics fresh and thought provoking while still having a kind of stream of conscious flow. Plus, he has Emmylou Harris singing backup which can only give just about anything an air of class. As far as rediscovering a band, I have been on a kick of going back and listening to the 1970s art-rock band Henry Cow. They were pretty outside the mainstream even then so they hold up very well for me today in the same way Captain Beefheart does.

What album has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD Player)?
I try to have something on my Ipod for every possible mood I might find myself in, so it’s an eclectic mess! I did find myself listening to the last three Wilco CDs quite a bit. Jeff Tweedy’s melodies and lyrics are just great and I hear cool, new things in the production every time. When I want to zone out, I frequently go to live stuff from Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew period like "Black Beauty." Such an amazing assortment of players taking it way out there with such a deep groove. I figured out once that "Black Beauty" was recorded when Miles was opening for the Grateful Dead. No wonder they didn’t want to go on after that! And yet it was cool to hear the influence of that music steadily creep into their jams over the next few years.

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
I have to say it’s a toss-up between Paul McCartney and Cream. Paul just gets more and more comfortable onstage as the years go by. He sounds great, his band is tight (especially Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums) and for a lifelong Beatle fan you just can’t beat a show with something like 25 or 30 Beatle songs in it. I never saw The Beatles and I never got to see Cream. Cream in 2005 weren’t quite as savage as they were in 1968, but I didn’t really expect them to be. They are all still great players with instantly recognizable styles, and Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker kicked Eric Clapton’s ass enough to make him play best I have heard him play live. I’m not sure what it says about either me or the music of today that both these artists started in the sixties, but it’s still hard to beat The Beatles for pop music or Cream for jam music!

Howie Schnee (Creative Entertainment Group)

What will you remember most about 2005?
Hurricane Katrina and Bush’s appointee "heck of a job" Brownie’s response,
or lack thereof. I will never forget the overwhelming support by musicians,
venues, promoters and fans. The Radio City benefit was incredible. Russell
Batiste & Friends with Page at Lion’s Den was pretty special too.

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
Brandi Carlile is amazing. An instant classic. Kind of like a female Ray
LaMontagne. I also caught this guy Jake Brennan out of Boston late one night
at CODA. Watch out for him!

What album has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD Player)?
Nellie McKay, Get Away From Me. I can’t get enough of that song "Really."

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
Mars Volta at Bonnaroo. Epic! Close runner-up is the 2nd night of Trey in
May at Hammerstein. The “Wolfman’s Brother” with Gordon was the best thing I
saw in concert all year.

Charlie Hitchcock

What will you remember most about 2005?
The year of change! Started playing with Banyan and Willie Waldman regularly,
Particle “breakup”, Birth of Hydra and also the end? Got my charliehitchcock.com website started and have been compiling material for my first solo effort.

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
ALOWe went to college together and we used to jam and play in different
bands back then, but I didn’t really get to see them much until this year.
I’ve been running into them at festivals and they opened for Particle at our
5 year anniversary, which was great. Great players and nice guys!

What album has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD Player)?
Bill Mays & Ed Bickert, Live at Maybeck. It’s a great live piano guitar
duet playing really laid back jazz standards. It sits for a long time in my
disk changer and I usually throw it on if I’m working on my guitars or amps.

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
Probably the Xingolati boat cruise. It was great to hang and check out all
the other bands. I performed with Banyan and DJ Logic and, although I didn’t
know it at the time, I did my last Particle gig ever.

Rajiv Parikh (New Monsoon)

What will you remember most about 2005?
Being part of the amazing Big Summer Classic tour! From the bands to the
venues to the catering and sit-ins, it was truly the highlight of 2005.

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
The Mars Volta

What album has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD Player)?
Queens of the Stoneage, Black Eyed Peas, Jonas Hellborg and Audioslave

Ed Harris (Lake Trout)

What will you remember most about 2005?
That everyone I know turned 30.

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
Do I have to name just 1 [laughs]? The most recent I discovered was The Oranges Band and I rediscovered Neutral Milk Hotel.

What album has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD Player)?
Ambulance LTD

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
The Flaming Lips at The All Good festival playing many songs from their
underappreciated masterpiece The Soft Bulletin.

Kerry Black (Superfly)

What will you remember most about 2005?
Katrina and the ensuing madness (still going on by the way).

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
Tom Vek / Brakes / Heartless Bastards (sorry, just couldn’t name one)

What album has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD Player)?
Mastadon – Leviathan

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
Turbonegro at Webster Hall (come on, they tour with a Norwegian midget
called "The Norwidget" and sing a song about NAMBLA)

David Gans (Musician, The Grateful Dead Hour)

What will you remember most about 2005?
Musically? The Guilty Pleasures tour! We did four shows with Barry Sless, Rob Barraco, Klyph Black, Adam Perry and myself, and for a fifth date we swapped David Nelson in for Barry. With one day of rehearsal we worked up 18 songs and had a hell of a time!

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
Uncle Earl was a new discovery. Really wonderful all-female string band. I rediscovered the Amazing Rhythm Aces when I shared a festival stage with them in July, and I saw that Russell Smith is still one of the greatest living American songwriters.

What album has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD Player)?
Ry Cooder- Chavez Ravine.

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
Music Hall stage at MagnoliaFest, October 21: The billing was "David Gans and Friends," and I was joined by Joe Craven, four members of Railroad Earth and three other fine musicians.

Jamie McLean (Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Jamie McLean Band)

What will you remember most about 2005?
Hurricane Katrina. Having my entire life completely altered overnight.

Name one band you discovered (or rediscovered) in the past year?
Wilco

What album has appeared most often in your itunes (or CD Player)?
Rolling Stones- Exile on Main Street

What is your favorite performance from the past twelve months?
The Madison Square Garden for the "From The Big Apple to the Big Easy"
benefit. I got to play a few tunes with Elvis Costello and Diana Krall.