From site editor, Dean Budnick…
While driving home from Coventry last Monday afternoon, I learned that my sister Stacy had passed away.
Stacy was a vivid, unique spirit and a gifted, fearless athlete but she also fostered a deep love for music. Although she was five years younger than me, her passions certainly informed my own. I can recall helping to find her tickets for Phishs New Years Eve performances from 91-93 (in 92 we attended the 12/28 Palace Theater show together- I still have the t-shirt she bought me as a Chanukah gift that night- in fact I pulled it out and wore it to Great Woods last week) . We saw numerous shows together over the years, and while she was at Union College, we made it a point to ensure that my drive up to Schenectady to help bring her belongings home for the summer would coincide with the local stop on Dead tour (local defined broadly of course to include Buffalo which was 300 miles away, a greater distance than the ride back to Rhode Island). Stacy also joined our crew and offered her hospitality for many of the spring Albany shows. A few years later when she lived in Telluride we made the drive together across Colorado to see Phish at Red Rocks (while waiting for the action to start on day one, she introduced me to a musician she knew from town and slopes named Michael Kang, and later to the music of String Cheese Incident). It was this journey and the conversations that transpired during it which led me to write the Phishing Manual. Another book followed a few years later, which in turn yielded Jambands.com. What you may not know is that before this site evolved as it did, she actually served as the creator and original webmaster of the alpha version which launched in mid-1998 and focused on that book and the bands described in its pages.
For those of you who never met Stacy, think of that person in your circle of friends who is a bit bolder and more colorful than everyone else. That individual who is a legend in your group, who can elicit a whole evening of stories, each topping the next. That was my sister. She was cool. Beyond that she was a loyal, supportive daughter, sister, aunt and friend.
Stacy never wrote for Jambands.com but in many respects I feel that there would not be a site but for her. And it certainly would not be as robust as it. Theres a beauty to that. We are all entwined.
You may honor her memory with a contribution in Stacys name to Rocky Mountain Chapter Sierra Club, Inner City Outings Youth Programs, 1536 Wynkoop St., Suite 4-C, Denver, CO 80202.