This is a classic collection of over seventy folk songs and ballads, accompanied by extensive notes and carefully chosen pictures, that illustrate key periods in the history of Dundee. Throughout the songs there unfolds the story of the men of the sea, the great clipper fleets and the men of the whaling ships, the rise and fall of the jute mills and the women who supplied their workforce, the mass unemployment of the '30s and the slum clearance of the '60s and '70s. This is also the story of the great characters of Dundee, from Bonnie Dundee himself through McGonagall to the elusive Piper O' Dundee, with, of course, the full rich tapestry of worthies and rogues who people the pages of history of any great city. The result is a marvellous and unique picture of the vibrant life and times of one of Scotland's most colourful and distinctive communities. Full of humour and life, these songs and anecdotes and stories that accompany them convey, as no dry narrative history can, the energy and character of the people and place that is Dundee.

Collected and arranged by Nigel Gatherer with a foreword by Peter Shepheard.