‘Flower Of Scotland’ was written in 1970, but sounds timeless. The Scotland’s Rugby Team in preference to ‘Scotland The Brave’, another anthem, which is more revered played as a stirring bagpipe tune than it’s rather sentimental lyrics, adopted the song. The words of ‘Scots Wha Hae’, written by Robbie Burns in 1787, Scotland’s second most popular anthem, refer to the Scottish patriots Robert the Bruce and William Wallace, of Braveheart fame. This patriotic song is a favourite of many nationalists but is not widely heard outside Scotland. In 1992 a Glasgow advertising firm was asked to create a jingle for Tennent’s Lager. Little did it know that the song would have such a powerful impact on the lives of so many? The song ‘Caledonia’, sung by Scots blues singer Frankie Miller, was used in a TV ad that compared the life of a Scot’s émigré in London with the lifestyle back home. Glasgow won so easily that the brewery for fear of showing favour to the Scottish Nat! ionalist Party pulled the song. When Hector MacDonald committed suicide in 1903, Scotland felt betrayed by "English’ colonists. Born in The Highlands in 1857, he rose from lowly rank fighting in the Afghan War of the 1870s to become a Knighted Major General in 1902. A genuine hero from the modern day equivalent of the Marine Corps, The Gordon Highlanders, he fell victim to the high morals of the Victorian era that he so proudly served. He was quickly immortalized in this tune, 'Hector the Hero' by James Scott Skinner. The other songs and tunes on this album have similar stories to tell. Tunes such as ‘The Gael’ and ‘Amazing Grace’ are performed by the Edinburgh Military Tattoo Band, and The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, another cultural icon, perform "Auld Lang Syne’, perhaps the best known Scottish anthem of all.

1. Caledonia, (Frankie Miller) 
2. Hector the Hero, (Wolfstone) 
3. The Gael, (Edinburgh Military Tattoo Massed Bands) 
4. Scotland My Homeland, (Eliza Gilkyson) 
5. Slangeva, (The Grants) 
6. Alasdair Mhiccolla, (Mary Sandeman) 
7. Scots Wha ha’e, (Jim Nicol and The SFO) 
8. Always Argyll, (Valerie Dunbar) 
9. Ae Fond Kiss, (Mary Sandeman) 
10. Flowers of the Forest, (Isla St Clair) 
11. Highland Cathedral, (Massed Pipes and Drums) 
12. Flower of Scotland, (Brora) 
13. Will ye no come back again, (Dalriada) 
14. When The Pipers Play, (Isla St Clair) 
15. Ye Jacobites by Name, (Dalriada) 
16. Auld Lang Syne, (The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra) 
17. Amazing Grace, (Edinburgh Military Tattoo Massed Bands)