09/08/2026
🎶 THIS WEEK AT THE FORGE 🎶
Three nights. Three Texas artists. Three completely different reasons to come hang out with us in Ben Wheeler this week.
THURSDAY 9.10 • ERIN SWAIN-YORK 🤠
Thursday starts with someone who feels a whole lot less like booking an artist and a whole lot more like booking family.
Erin Swain-York has been playing The Forge for the better part of a decade. She’s a local favorite, a longtime friend of this place, and about as country as they come.
She’s also just one of those people who makes you happy to see her walk through the door.
She’s a wife. She’s a mama. She’s kind, funny, ridiculously easy to work with, and when Erin plays The Forge, her whole crew tends to show up for her. Her family has been part of the Forge regular crowd for years.
And then she opens her mouth and sings.
Because underneath the day-to-day life is one seriously talented woman. She’s got a beautiful country voice, she’s so much fun to watch perform, and she has that easy way of making a room feel good while she’s doing it.
Thursday night is good country music, familiar faces, cold drinks, and one of our longtime Forge favorites back where she belongs:
in the spotlight.
FRIDAY 9.11 • MARK ALLAN ATWOOD 🎸
Friday brings some serious Texas music pedigree to Ben Wheeler.
Mark Allan Atwood has spent more than four decades making music across Texas. He’s a four-time Texas Music Awards recipient, including Male Vocalist of the Year, with five full-length albums of original music and multiple songs that have found their way onto Texas radio charts.
His sound wanders through Texas country, Americana, Southern rock, and good old-fashioned songwriting, backed by the kind of experience you only get after spending a lifetime doing this.
Mark has lived Texas music. Friday night is your chance to grab a table, order something cold, and hear a genuine Texas music veteran with decades of songs, stories, and miles behind him.
SATURDAY 9.12 • THAYER LEE 🤘
Thayer Lee is a Tyler-area favorite with one of our favorite Forge origin stories.
Years ago, he showed up with his band to one of our Wednesday night open mics and absolutely blew the roof off the place. We’ve been booking him ever since.
He’s an incredible vocalist, an absolutely ridiculous guitarist, and the kind of performer who turns a set into a spectacle. Grunge, Southern rock, psychedelic rock, country, country gold, whatever he plays still comes out unmistakably Thayer.
We’ve watched him leave the stage mid-song, work the crowd with an electric guitar, play behind his back, upside down, and even use a beer bottle as a slide.
You don’t really watch a Thayer Lee show from across the room. Eventually, the show comes to you.
Saturday is technically a solo booking, but around here that rarely means he stays solo. Musicians show up, somebody grabs an instrument, and the night tends to grow legs.
If you know, you know. And if you don’t, come find out.
🎶 LIVE MUSIC THURSDAY–SATURDAY • 7–10 PM
🍽️ Come hungry.
🍻 Stay awhile.
📍 The Forge • Ben Wheeler, Texas
Three nights. Three very different artists. Three very good reasons to make your way to Ben Wheeler this week.
