An Irish Rambling House brings traditional dance, song and storytelling to the Tower Theatre on Friday. 

The members of An Irish Rambling House are always busy this time of year. They return to Bend on Friday, St. Patrick’s Day, which is the reason they’re so busy in March.

An Irish Rambling House features an evening of Irish music, dance and stories. Its name comes right from the tradition of Irish rambling houses, gathering points where neighbors would come together to share music, dance and storytelling.

Brian Bigley, founder and multitasker in An Irish Rambling House, told GO! their shows seek to re-create those kinds of gatherings.

Bigley is of Irish descent on his father’s side and grew up in Cleveland. However, he’s heard first-hand accounts of rambling houses from Tomáseen Foley, the storyteller in the show, who did grow up in Ireland.

“He describes them as an evening where the neighbors would ramble over the hills and over the fields to go share music, dance and storytelling with everyone. It’s just kind of a communal gathering where everyone just enjoyed each other’s company,” he said.

So how did a guy from the home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame wind up dancing to and performing Irish music?

“Even though I didn’t grow up in the west of Ireland, as we like to say in the show, I grew up in the west of Cleveland, where there was actually a remnant of that tradition on the street I grew up on,” Bigley said. “There was a couple of old guys from Ireland who played the flute and the fiddle. … They were invited over to this house of a family and were really instrumental in my early life. That’s where I was first exposed to this culture of Irish traditional music and dance. The fiddle player was particularly great with the spoken word. He would recite limericks and it was just this great, warm feeling that I had never experienced until that point in my life.”

Those parties took place at the home of his piano teacher when he was between 7 and 9 years old, and they would prove a seminal influence on his life and career. The young Bigley also took up Irish dancing and began studying the uilleann pipes soon after.

He competed in Irish dance through high school and made it to the world championships a couple of times. During that same time period, he began playing music out live.

“I found out that my parents would let me out of the house if I was making money,” Bigley said. “And sometimes it would be in a pub. I’d be playing music and having a great time with my friends and getting paid, and my parents would let me do it, so I thought, ‘Maybe I should do more of this.’”

Like fellow member of An Irish Rambling House Eimear Arkin, who sings, dances and plays multiple instruments in the show, Bigley, too, wears a few hats, playing the Irish flute and the uilleann pipes and still dancing as part of the show.

“Now I like to say I only dance when I’m getting paid enough,” Bigley said.

Because the uilleann pipes, a sweet-sounding bagpipe, are difficult to maintain, and most music shops can’t repair them, Bigley spent a year and a half working with a master pipe maker and learning to build the pipes.

When he’s not touring, he makes pipes at home in Ohio, where he lives with his wife and two children. The rest of the time, of course, he’s entertaining people with the kind of performances that enthralled him as a young boy.

“That’s what our show tries to do, is re-create that sense of community and joy that we experienced as kids.”

What: An Irish Rambling House

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Tower Theatre, 835 NW Wall St., Bend

Cost: $32-$47, plus $3 historic preservation fee

Contact: towertheatre.org or 541-317-0700