With performances booked year-round, Beth Ritter-Guth’s bagpipes and kilt are always on the ready.

Festivals, parades and competitions? She’ll be there.

The same goes for the weddings, funerals and Christmas parties that she’ll add to her calendar.

But no matter the year, March is always the busiest of all.

“We call it the high holy month of bagpiping,” Ritter-Guth of Palmerton, said.

It should come as no surprise that St. Patrick’s Day, which falls on March 17, is the reason.

“I am booked every weekend this month and next week I am booked every day,” she said.

Ritter-Guth’s March schedule sees pub crawls, parties and performances. Some she’ll play some solo and others she’ll do with Celtic United Pipes and Drums, based in Wind Gap, and the MacKay Pipe Band, headquartered South Bethlehem.

With 40 years of experience, Ritter-Guth can play a host of songs in a variety of styles.

But this time o’ year, requests are typically for “walk around music” — the energetic and happy tunes.

“I’m a dance piper, too, so I play for dancers. I started with dancing,” Ritter-Guth said. “I like the fast-paced music to get everybody up.”

She began playing the bag pipes while a student at Liberty High School in Bethlehem.

“I actually started as a Highland dancer,” Ritter-Guth said, referring to the Scottish style of dance.

As she’d twirl and hop, her brother, Paul Ritter, would accompany her on his bagpipes.

“And then he got busy with school, so I thought, ‘Oh, well I’ll learn to play the bagpipes and play for myself as I dance,” Ritter-Guth explained.

It didn’t take her long to learn that it wasn’t possible.

“You cannot dance and play bagpipes at the same time — my 13-year-old self thought I could,” she laughed.

Despite that, Ritter-Guth continued to practice the bagpipes.

“I fell in love with the music and the culture behind it,” she said.

While many associate bagpipes with Ireland and Scotland, Ritter-Guth said they’re a part of many civilizations.

“Every culture has bagpipes. Every single culture on the planet has some sort of bagpipes,” she said.

Most people, however, are familiar with Highland bagpipes, or those native to Scotland.

They’re the ones more commonly played at events. She explained that Irish bagpipes, or uilleann pipes, are played while sitting — and have a much different sound than Highland pipes.

“When you hear the more ‘flute’-y bagpipes, those are usually the uilleann pipes,” Ritter-Guth said. “But you can’t march those in a parade. A lot of times though people will confuse those two because we play the Scottish pipes for Irish events.”

Bagpipers often get requests to perform at celebratory events.

“As a piper you get to be part of the most important moments of a person’s life. You get to be part of people’s very special and moving days,” she said. “It’s a beautiful part of the tradition.”

When she’s not playing in public, nice days find her on her porch.

“All the neighbors come out,” she said. “They bring their chairs.”

She always winds down with the song, “Amazing Grace.” It’s one that most everyone knows — and ranks as the most requested song she performs both alone and with her bands.

Ritter-Guth said she’d like to see more bagpiping in Carbon County no matter the time of year.

“Anything in Carbon County that is EMS- or veteran-related, I do for free,” she said. “If there’s a funeral, I can do it if I don’t have to work.”

She can be contacted britterguth@gmail.com or on Facebook at Beth Ritter-Guth.