River Wheel is exclusively a touring band. It has to be.

Tony Califano has had no shortage of musical projects since moving to Saratoga Springs in 2005. But even with so much going on, Califano felt something was missing.

Without Eamonn McGirr’s help, Frank Jaklitsch would never have gotten his start in Albany. Today, Jaklitsch is one of the Capital Region’s elder statesmen on the Irish music scene, alongside such artists as Kevin McKrell and the members of Hair of the Dog. But when he first moved from New York City to Albany in 1988, he had a tough time even getting a bar gig in the area.

Both Marc Clayton and Jeff Sohn of The Lazy Suns, had built reputations on the local roots music scene. As such, they’ve been in and out of bands with the other members of the Suns but had never met before.

Drummer Scott Apicelli and vocalist Mike DeAngelis have always loved jazz standards, both vocal and instrumental. But until recently, the two musicians always found themselves on the rock end of the music spectrum. In May of last year, the two finally found the time, teaming up with guitarist Rob Cohen, a former bandmate of Apicelli’s, and bassist Ed Tourge to form The Standard Clams.

Musicians such as Frank Turner and Ben Folds influenced Deidra Knauth and Jim Desario of local duo The Midnight Society to write songs from their own experiences. In Desario and Knauth’s case, that approach leaves them with a lot of songs about chemistry, Dungeons and Dragons and video games.

Every year, the members of Albany rock band The Charlie Watts Riots do two to three Christmas shows. And every year, they fight over which Christmas cover to play. So this year, they wrote one instead.

Ov Dust is finally a band again. “We took our time finding people that we wanted in the band,” guitarist D. Von Staub said.

For the past six years, singer and rapper Jermaine Wells has built his reputation in the Capital Region as the frontman for hip-hop and R&B band The Ill Funk Ensemble. But that’s only one side of Wells’ artistic personality.