This volume contains a selection of traditional fiddle music and song airs that are played and sung whenever Scots meet at festivals and special occasions. The music of many of the song airs collected by Robert Burns are adaptations of traditional fiddle tunes and feature in the Ayrshire section. This also contains extensive notes on Burns as a fiddler, musician and songwriter.

The Borders Section, which is rich in ballad and song, contains familiar melodies known to the writer since childhood, many of which are sung and played by brass bands as an integral part of Border Common Riding festivities.

This volume includes airs and pastorals, reels, strathspeys, marches, jigs, hornpipes, waltzes, polkas and minuets. There are tunes, not only by well-known fiddler/composers and song writers but also by some of the lesser known musicians as well as new and unpublished tunes together with compositions from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Also included is some of 'Scotland's Forgotten Fiddle Music' as defined by Charles Gore in his publication with this title.

The majority of composers, poets and fiddlers referred to in this collection have been associated with Edinburgh at one time or another since, although most of the traditional Scots Fiddle music originated elsewhere in Scotland, it was in Edinburgh where patrons and publishers were found and where performances were encouraged.

The associated narratives particularly reflect the rich history, folklore, ballads and traditions of the areas represented as well as the fascinating background to Burns as a fiddler, musician and song writer.