A Note From Trip Shakespeare

Greetings True Shakespeariencers- 

That was Morgan’s sign on for the podcast, [The Shakespearicon], where he conducted some very probing interviews with Matt, Dan, Elaine and me on topics related to Trip Shakespeare.  Sadly that precious dose of sunshine has now moved on and this note is a little bit more somber than the bright chirrup of Morgan’s voice. 

Many of you know that TripShakespeare.net as it exists now is largely the work of me and Morgan Taylor, also known as Trip Shakespeare’s number one fan. And to say “me and Morgan'' is honestly giving me too much credit. Morgan, during COVID, observing me trying to find a place to take all the things that had been stored in boxes for decades and which could be digitized, especially including the MANY MANY LIVE TAPES that had been made over the band's career of shows by the likes of Jay Perlman and Brad Kern, famously said, “Those precious tapes must not be relegated to some dark corner of the internet to languish unnoticed for centuries! NO!! They must be perched upon a beautiful golden doily that we will craft together, along with all the other memorabilia and things we can find in our exhaustive search.”   

I will admit that I found Morgan’s unstaunchable geyser of enthusiasm impossible to resist and we cavorted together in its mist. Our mining and coding gave the pandemic purpose and more than that further cemented our bond as friends. It seems that among the former members of Trip Shakespeare I have long been the member most interested in preserving its legacy, sensibility and songs. Morgan had the partner he needed to summon the energy to make his shrine to the band he loved. 

And now he is gone. And that is brutally sad. We will miss and miss and miss him, and I have found myself wondering if it makes sense to carry on with the website.  

After consulting with my bandmates, and Rachel, Morgan’s widow, we have concluded that we will at least temporarily stop with new posts, offer what is left of the merchandise (including a groovy new sticker i decided to crank out on a whim), and then “ease back” as they say. For now the website will remain as a resource, along with the podcast. Maybe it will make sense to do something further. Maybe someone will step forward to takeover, gently continuing to ask all the interesting questions Trip Shakespeare posed. Or maybe the website will drift off into the wayback machine or be consigned to the corner of the internet it was originally destined for. There is no sadness in this. This is the nature of things. 

On behalf of the band, I want to thank Morgan and Rachel especially and all of you who have paid attention to our doings over the years and down to now, for giving us your time and attention. You are a wondrous community of people and we love you. 

Please don’t hesitate to buy up the shirts, cups, coozies, stickers, hats and posters. Get them into your possession. If they are up there on the website store, we can get them to you. 

Blessings to you all and especially to Morgan: may you have peace on your journey. If you want to learn more of Morgan’s magic, visit him at Gustafer Yellowgold dot com. And please come and see any of us as we play our way merrily into the future… 

Peace to you all until we meet again. 

John, Matt, Dan and Elaine