Open road and music-themed hero image for BackBeat  Highway

BackBeat Highway — Nashville live band

Nashville, Tennessee

Three lead voices. Five seasoned players. One road-tested groove.

Classic rock, soul, blues, roots, country and the songs that still know how to move a room.

Classic Rock•Soul•Blues•Roots•Country•Americana•70s / 80s•Deep Cuts

The band

A highway through the songs that still move a room.

BackBeat Highway is fueling the road with five seasoned musicians, four vocalists, miles of music and plenty of groove. Our set list travels from classic-rock main streets and soul avenues to blues backroads, roots highways and country lanes — all driven by a steady BackBeat that keeps the night moving. Start your engines, roll down the windows and turn up the BackBeat . Cruise and Groove with BBHW — and let us drive you through a night of great songs.

Our musical background consists of songwriting , studio recordings of original music and other artists’ songs as well as playing at live performance venues . The band's musical genre includes classic rock, soul, blues, country, southern rock, and the sophisticated pop of the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s.

A BackBeat HIGHWAY booking showcases artists’ including : Van Morrison, Steely Dan, Eagles, Joe Cocker, Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Chris Stapleton, BB King and Jimi Hendrix. BBHWY has created the musical memories we can share together with the experiences our band has produced over the years consisting of strong vocals, and musical dynamics.

“Serve the song. Serve the groove. Read the room. Make familiar music feel good again.”
A cinematic open highway at night blended with music instruments and warm stage-light colors
Road-tested music. Nashville roots. No tribute-band costume required.
3lead vocalists
5seasoned players
1deep, flexible songbook
∞ways to make a room move

Seasoned, not nostalgic.

Professional, not sterile.

Musicianly, never self-indulgent.

Classic songs. Deep roots. Played like they still matter.

Meet BackBeat Highway

Five different musical lives. One bandstand.

The strength of BackBeat Highway is not that everyone came from the same place. It's that they didn't.

Mike Mancour performing guitar and vocals

Lead & backup vocals • Guitar • Slide • Harmonica • Songwriter

Mike Mancour

Detroit-rooted and Nashville-seasoned, Mike is a guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose musical story runs from Michigan bands of the late 1970s through decades of Nashville-area rock, blues, country, roots and variety work.

Full bio

His playing blends expressive lead and rhythm guitar, slide, harmonica and a song-first approach shaped by clubs, songwriter circles, road dates and long-running live bands including Hot Ice, Orange Crush, Instigator and BluesSlinger.

Songwriting has remained a parallel thread throughout Mike's musical life. He is also the founder of iDreamMusic, a songwriting and creative-development platform built around helping songwriters strengthen ideas, songs and craft while keeping the human songwriter at the center of the process.

Mike's artist archive →

Chuck Vaughn singing and playing a white electric guitar

Lead & backup vocals • Bass • Guitar • Producer / Engineer

Chuck Vaughn

Chuck brings BackBeat Highway a rare combination of stage experience and studio ears — bassist, guitarist, vocalist, producer and recording engineer with roots in Florida, Los Angeles and Nashville.

Full bio

Chuck spent much of the 1990s and 2000s in independent bands in Florida and California. In downtown Los Angeles, he owned and operated the independent Panel Room recording studio for seven years, producing and engineering numerous projects while recording his own work under the name Twin Lens Reflex.

After relocating to Nashville following one of Southern California's wildfires, he became active in the blues, roots and Americana scenes. His inventive bass, dependable rhythm guitar, powerful vocals and producer's sense of space and dynamics help shape the band's sound.

Kyle Moon standing at keyboards and singing

Lead & backup vocals • Keyboards • Guitar • Bass • Harmonica

Kyle Moon

Inspired by the Beatles, Kyle picked up a guitar at 13 and never really stopped making music. His influences range from Steely Dan and 1970s soft rock to jazz and classic rock.

Full bio

A multi-instrumentalist on guitar, bass, keyboards and harmonica, Kyle spent more than a decade performing original music with Kentucky-based Atomic Solace and later Nashville's Stratton 13.

After taking time away to raise his family and pursue a career in education, he returned to the stage with BackBeat Highway, where his keyboard work adds harmonic color, texture and a musician's ear for arrangement.

Barney Evers playing bass

Backup vocals • Bass • Guitar • Keyboards • Flute • Harmonica • Songwriter

Barney Evers

Nashville native Barney Evers is a veteran bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, flutist, harmonica player, songwriter and recording musician with decades inside Nashville's working-music community.

Full bio

Barney studied guitar and string bass in the University of Tennessee jazz program and went on to play bass with Eddie Rabbitt, Johnny Rodriguez and Pam Tillis.

His original recordings have featured an accomplished circle of musicians including Billy Crain, Billy Anderson, Andy Byrd, Mackin P. Davis, Bob Mater, Michael Lind, and Bart Rollins, along with co-writer Bill Haynes. Barney maintains a catalog of roughly 35 original songs.

Rick Mason smiling behind his drum kit

Drums • Percussion

Rick Mason

Nashville native Rick Mason is a veteran drummer whose career spans formal percussion study, Southeast road work, Nashville clubs, television, studio recording and years of music ministry.

Full bio

Rick Mason is a native Nashville, TN drummer whose musical career includes:

  • MTSU percussion scholarship included performing in jazz ensemble and the university symphony orchestra.
  • Playing at club events- Private parties and weddings.
  • Live performances in the house band at The Cannery in downtown Nashville,TN-recorded 2 country albums and TV appearance.
  • Bookings at Southeast universities fraternity parties, festivals, and Holiday Inn circuits
  • 16 years of studio and Christian recordings; produced 4 albums
  • Volunteer-teacher at W.O. Smith and YMCA Green Hills in Nashville, TN
  • 16 years performing at the Nashville Rescue Mission Recovery Center

Songs We Play

Familiar enough to sing along. Deep enough to keep musicians interested.

BackBeat Highway builds sets for flow rather than genre silos — groove into sing-along, deep cut into Southern-rock lift, soulful vocal into a guitar moment, then back to something everybody in the room knows.

Soul / Groove

  • Domino
  • Feelin' Alright
  • Dock of the Bay
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg
  • Gimme Some Lovin'
  • Unchain My Heart

Classic Rock / Radio

  • Rikki Don't Lose That Number
  • Call Me the Breeze
  • Working for a Living
  • Hurts So Good
  • 867-5309 / Jenny
  • Breakdown
  • Gimme Three Steps
  • Take It Easy

Blues / Roots / Southern

  • Rack 'Em Up
  • Tennessee Whiskey
  • Every Time I Roll the Dice
  • Black Magic Woman
  • Little Wing
  • Magnolia
  • Rainy Night in Georgia

Deep-Cut Crowd Favorites

  • Spooky
  • Baby It's You
  • Wicked Game
  • Mama Told Me Not to Come
  • To Love Somebody
  • Love Me Two Times

Repertoire evolves constantly. Ask about current set options and special-event requests.

BackBeat  Highway onstage against an expansive twilight highway sky

Built for the room

Not just a setlist. A night with shape.

Three lead vocal personalities and a lineup with serious multi-instrumental depth let BackBeat Backbeat Highway can travel from soul and blues to classic rock, country and roots music — all powered by the same steady backbeat, without sounding like five different bands.

Familiar songs without the same-old cover-band feel.

Media

The road, the room, the players.

A mix of real performance photos and BackBeat Highway promotional imagery created from the band's own member references.

Where we fit

A professional band with a crowd-friendly songbook.

01

Clubs & listening rooms

Enough depth for music people, enough familiarity for everybody else.

02

Festivals & community events

Recognizable songs, broad appeal and a set that can scale to the occasion.

03

Private & corporate events

Professional, flexible and mature — without becoming background music.

04

Special events

Tell us the room, the crowd and the goal. We build the night around it.

Book BackBeat Highway

Bring the BackBeat to your room.

Looking for familiar songs without the same-old cover-band feel? BackBeat Highway is available for Nashville-area clubs, festivals, private events, community events, corporate gatherings and other engagements where strong musicianship and a crowd-friendly repertoire matter.

  • Three lead vocalists
  • Deep, flexible repertoire
  • Touring, studio, songwriting, TV and production experience
  • Professional, audience-aware performance
Download the full EPK

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