BRADFORD - By day, Adam Boyce is a veteran fiddler of 20 years. By night, he becomes the famous folklorist and musician Charles Ross Taggart. Boyce has been telling Taggart's story through live presentations for just over a year.

Charles Ross Taggart had a 43-year career touring the small stage Chautauqua circuit which educated adults about the fine and performing arts. His career began in 1895. Taggart taught music lessons to children, and one day as he was approaching the bend in the road, he was faced with a decision. One side of the road led to the house of the children he was to teach, the other led to the town hall where he would hold his very first performance. Taggart left it up to his horse to decide, whichever path the horse took Taggart would as well. The horse chose to follow the path that led to the town hall and that's where Taggart scheduled his first performance.

It wasn't this easy for Adam Boyce to decide he wanted to bring Charles Ross Taggart's story to life. Boyce did some minor research, stopped for a while, and then started again, this time heavily researching Taggart. He has been researching Taggart for over six years now, and continues to research and improve on his act.

"Each time he does more research he adds new information in, and there are a couple of parts of it that I still get chills from," says his wife Mary-Ann Boyce.

Taggart played folk music on his violin, practiced ventriloquism using an instrument case, played the piano, and told humorous stories. In his presentation Boyce plays the violin and tells humorous stories just as Taggart would have. Through his music and stories Boyce not only teaches his audience about Taggart but also the way of life in rural New England during Taggart's time. He is currently working with the Vermont Humanities Council to educate people about history and the arts, like Taggart did on the Chautauqua circuit.

"It was just a case of taking information and trying to put it into one hour. You've got forty-five minutes to an hour to convey a forty-three year career," explained Boyce.

The hardest part for Boyce to research for his performance as Charles Ross Taggart was actually visualizing him. Most of Taggart's material was simply audio; until Boyce found an early Phonofilm of Taggart performing. The Phonofilm finally gave Boyce a visual of Taggart's look and his mannerisms. Using the visuals, Boyce has been able to perfect his performance and travel throughout Vermont and New Hampshire.

For about a year Charles Ross Taggart worked in Bradford. Before the presentation an excerpt from his antique diary about Bradford was read. In the diary entry Taggart remembers his time and adventures in Bradford fondly.  Members of the Bradford Historical Society enjoyed hearing from the diary, and enjoyed Boyce's portrayal of Taggart even more.

To learn more about Adam Boyce you can visit his Facebook page, and to see Charles Ross Taggart's Phonofilm you can visit TVRadioFilmTheatre's website.