• The first prize winner is Astrid Weiffen. She will receive the Special Edition of the Stories from the Steeples album.
• The three second prize winners are Hester van Duinen, Jan Dirk Kooiman and Pauline Dring. They will each receive the Stories from the Steeples album.
• The third prize winners are Heather Buret who receives the Marguerite and the Gambler CD Single and Paul Facey-Hunter who receives the No Frontiers CD Single.

Mary's new album Stories from the Steeples will be released in the following countries on the following dates:

• The Netherlands - 31 October on Music and Words
• Australia and New Zealand - 4 November on The Planet Company
• UK - 14 November on Blix Street Records

To celebrate the upcoming release of Mary's new album, we are organizing this contest. In this contest you can win the new album and other prizes.

What can you win:

1. One first prize winner receives the Special Edition of "Stories from the Steeples".
2. Three second place winners receive the regular edition of "Stories from the Steeples".
3. Two third prize winners receive a CD single. One receives the "Marguerite and the Gambler" single, the other the "No Frontiers" single.

What do you have to do to enter? Just answer the following question:

On "Stories from the Steeples", Mary sings three duets: one with Imelda May, one with Janis Ian and one with Finbar Furey. In the past, Mary has recorded duets with other artists. Name at least three other artists with whom Mary recorded a duet and give the title of those duets. The duet must have been released on an album or single of Mary.

Send in your answer no later then 19 October 2011 to contest@mary-black.net

• Colleen Harte
• Craig Werner

I have two Walking with my Love EP's to give away in a contest. All you have to do is tell me which organization do Mary Black and Finbar Furey support with this EP?

E-mail your answer no later than 30 September 2011 to contest@mary-black.net

RTE 1 will broadcast the episode of For One Night Only with Mary Black this coming Friday, 12 August 2011 at 9:30pm (Irish time). The broadcast will be available on the Internet as well for a couple of weeks.

For One Night Only is a six part entertainment series hosted by the irrepressible legend Gaybo, featuring music and chat from some of the stalwarts of the Irish music industry; Christy Moore, Daniel O'Donnell, Mary Black, Imelda May, Paul Brady and Bob Geldof.

For one Night Only gives an intimate and emotional look at the featured artist's life story. Filmed in front of a studio audience of no more than 200 fans who have the exclusive opportunity to get 'up close and personal' with their idols.

Click here for the website of the show.

For One Night Only: A six part entertainment series hosted by the irrepressible legend Gaybo, featuring music and chat from some of the stalwarts of the Irish Music Industry: Mary Black, Daniel O’Donnell, Christy Moore, Imelda May and Bob Geldof.

If you would like to be part of our studio audience for this intimate show with Mary, which will take place in RTE studios in Dublin on Tuesday Evening the 7th of June, you can apply for an application form by sending an e-mail to onenightonly@rte.ie and please put Mary Black in the subject box. Closing date for Applications will be Tuesday 31st of May

Unfortunately we only have a limited amount of tickets available so everyone that applies may not be guaranteed a ticket. So, only apply if you are able to make it to the RTE studios in Dublin on Tuesday Evening the 7th of June.

If you have any problem emailing you can contact Avril on 012083906

We recently ran a contest in which you could win a promo CD of 'Marguerite and the Gambler'. The question in the contest was Why was the day that Mary's first TV performance of 'Anachie Gordon' was broadcasted so special to Mary (besides the broadcast itself)?. The correct answer is because it was her wedding day.

The four winners of this contest are:

• Ross McGowan
• Gill Jones
• David Goodwin
• Linda Stock

From now till the end of the year, we will be giving away several prizes via Mary Black’s Facebook and Twitter account. Prizes include items such as CD’s, CD singles, posters, t-shirts, a songbook and signed photographs. We will be giving away these prizes in small batches, each a small contest running for a couple of days.

Each time we give away two main prizes and a signed photograph as a consolation prize. Beforehand, we decide which of the two prizes will be given away on Facebook and which will be given away on Twitter. But we will not tell you, so you will have to guess. Only if you guess correctly, will you be taken into the draw for that prize. You have of course two chances: you can reply to both the Facebook entry and the Twitter entry (but only once to each). But how you spread you chances is up to you… Even if you guess wrong, we will draw a winner from all participants who will receive a signed photograph.

Keep and eye on Mary’s Facebook page and Twitter account to learn about the start of each contest.

After several successful meet and greets in Dingle in the past, we are now organizing a special meet and greet in Dublin on Sunday 20 June 2010. This year’s meeting is held in conjunction with three concerts on the preceding nights at the Olympia in Dublin. The meeting with Mary takes place on the MV Cill Airne, Dublin’s floating restaurant and bar on the Liffey.

Registration for this event has been closed. Tickets for the Olympia concerts can be bought at ticketmaster.ie

Hope to see you at the meet and greet in June.

• The six signed Mary Black DVD's go to: Patrick Bonner (Scotland), Martin Sapsed (UK), Kevin McCorkle (USA), Thomas Pressel (USA), Corry Vogels (The Netherlands) and David den Engelsman (The Netherlands).
• The Black Family - Our Time Together album signed by all members of the Black Family goes to: Paul Dolan (Ireland)
• The Twenty-five Years - Twenty-five Songs Songbook goes to: Channa van Kuijen (The Netherlands)
• The Katie (2008 Remix) Promo CD Single goes to: Stephen Francis (USA)
• The three full tide posters go to: Simone Bassi (Italy), Linda Stock (France) and Jane Boon (The Netherlands)

• The discography section now contains links to Mary's albums and songs on iTunes.
• The YouTube video section contains ten videos taken from the Twenty-five Years - Twenty-five Songs DVD which you can watch using the videoplayer on this site. Each month another selection of ten videos from that DVD will be made available.
• The sidebar on the right side of each page gives you an quick overview of the upcoming concerts and latest news. It also highlights an item available in the webshop and gives you direct access to one of the available videos.
• You can now choose for yourself what visual theme to use when visiting this site. There are currently three themes available ("25 Years"," Full Tide" and "Babes in the Wood"), but more will follow soon. You can pick a theme using the selection box in the sidebar.
• The music player - which can be activated from the sidebar - now contains two additional tracks: "The Real You" and a live recording of "Bless the Road".
• Mary’s biography has been updated.
• The photo galleries now not only allow you to browse through the available photos, but also gives you the option to watch a slideshow of those photos.
• It is now easier to contact us via this site. In the contact section, you can choose what type of message you want to send, then enter in your message and it will automatically be send to the right person(s). You can also send Mary a message via the contact section.
• The use of soundclips has been extended. You can now listen to a soundclip of all Mary’s songs throughout this site: from the track listings in the discography section and from the songs and lyrics section.

Notice that we are still working on transferring all data from the previous site. Not all items in the discography section and not all galleries have been transferred yet. This will be completed in the coming weeks. Also be aware that it may take some time before Google has updated their indexes, so the search function in the sidebar may not work in the first few weeks.

As this is a new site on a new host, it is possible that you will encounter some mistakes or problems. We apologize for any inconveniences that may cause you and hope that you will contact us about this so we can correct them.

We hope you will enjoy this new site. If you have any feedback (whether it being positive or negative), please contact us about it so we can use your feedback to improve the site further.

I have just received information regarding a series of documentaries called “The Music Makers” on BBC1 Northern Ireland (thanks Dominique). Tomorrow night, October 7th 2009 will feature Mary Black. The broadcast starts at 22:45 GMT (British time) on BBC1 Northern Ireland.

More information about this program: Mike Edgar, Head of Entertainment and Events, BBC Northern Ireland and Executive Producer of The Music Makers says: “The Music Makers is a celebration of four of the very finest artists ever to come from this island. We have a very rich musical heritage and this series gives us the opportunity to share and explore the talents of four wonderful people.

This first series looks at the careers to date of Paul Brady, Mary Black, Neil Hannon, and Mary O’Hara, all of whom have achieved major success not only at home but also on the international stage. “Music and story telling is part of our DNA, a fact that we should be rightly proud of and our four guests will be telling us about their musical journey in their own words and, who knows, maybe some improvised performance. However, we will also be digging deep into BBC Northern Ireland’s archive to share some amazing footage compiled over four decades including some not-to-be-missed forgotten gems. I have to say I felt so privileged recently to sit with the producer of the series wading through tape after tape of live performances, many of which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“On a lighter note, the haircuts and fashions may also put a smile on the faces of many of our viewers who lived through some of the moments that will feature in the series. For many of us music forms the soundtrack of our lives and if you love good music and people who can tell a great story The Music Makers is an ‘appointment to view’ television.”

For more information please visit the Music Makers Website at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n5rc1

Mary has recorded a song for Steve Martin's album "The Crow". Steve is a longtime fan of Mary's and he asked her to sing on a track he wrote "Calico Train". The album was produced by John McEuen. He wrote about the process on his MySpace blog: http://blogs.myspace.com/johnmceuen

Joe (Mary's manager) also wrote the following about this experience:

John sent the backing track to me along with Steve's lyrics and asked if Mary would be interested in recording a vocal - Mary liked the track and said she'd try it and see if it worked for her - it took a bit of work because it sounded more like a banjo instrumental than a song.

John brought the master to Dublin and we booked a session at The Cauldron Studios in Dublin just before Christmas. A few days before the recording Steve Martin called me and said he wanted to fly in for the recording and hook up with Mary - a bit of a shock to the system to get a call like that on my phone!

What a lovely guy Steve turned out to be and a genuine fan of Mary's from old - they hit it off really well. They had good fun in the studio and we all went for dinner after.

Finally Steve and John McEuen and a few friends said they'd like to go and hear some Irish music so we took them to The Cobblestone where there was a good session in progress and they joined in and played a few tunes on their banjos much to the surprise of the locals.

After about an hour and a half they had to leave to get their awaiting plane home - a memorable day!

A new song book called Mary Black - Twenty-five Years - Twenty-five Songs - The Songbook has been released. This song book replaces the previous song book which is no longer available. The song book can also be bought via the web shop on this site.

Mary's new DVD with videos and performances from all over her twenty-five year career, entitled Twenty-five years - Twenty-five songs has been released on 31 October 2008. The title of the album is in line with the recently released compilation album. The full track list and cover of the album can be found here.