About us
About Backbeat Roads, a music tour company in Nashville
Backbeat Roads was started in 2017 by Lorna Beckett, after eleven years on the road as a monitor engineer for touring bands. We plan music tours of the USA from an office on Division Street, and our tour leaders live in the cities they lead.
How it started
Eleven years behind the stage, then a different idea
Lorna grew up in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in a house where the radio was always on and half the neighbors had played on somebody's record. She learned to wire a stage before she learned to drive, and spent her twenties and early thirties mixing monitors for touring bands, mostly in clubs and theaters across the South.
On every tour, the same thing happened. Fans who had flown in for one show asked her where they should go the next day: which studio still had the old room, which bar had a band on a Tuesday, whether Clarksdale was worth the drive. She kept a list on her phone, and the list kept growing.
In 2017 she turned the list into a company, with one colleague and three tours. The rules were simple: two or three nights in each city, a show every night that is worth the ticket, and the studios and the back roads that the big bus tours skip.
We are deliberately small. Seven people in Nashville design the tours, answer your emails and book the shows; six tour leaders on the road lead the groups. We do not run a sales phone line, because we would rather put every detail in writing.
Timeline
Twenty years in eight lines
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2006 to 2016 | Lorna Beckett works as a monitor engineer for touring bands, eleven years and a few hundred towns, most of them in the South. |
| 2017 | Backbeat Roads opens in a shared office on Division Street in Nashville with two people and three tours: Nashville, Nashville and Memphis, and a Muscle Shoals day trip. |
| 2018 | New Orleans joins the program. Celeste Arceneaux comes on board. |
| 2019 | Our first Mississippi Blues Trail tour, from Memphis to Clarksdale. Darnell Hayes designs it. |
| 2020 | Every tour of the season is canceled. Every deposit is refunded or moved. |
| 2022 | Austin and Chicago join, and the first festival trips go on sale. |
| 2024 | Jenna Kowalski builds the northern tours: Detroit, Cleveland and Seattle. |
| 2026 | 15 tours and 9 destinations, from the Delta to the Pacific Northwest. |
The team
Seven people in Nashville
Tour designers ride every new itinerary before it goes on sale. If you email us, one of these people answers.
| Name | Role | About |
|---|---|---|
| Lorna Beckett | Founder and managing director | Grew up in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Toured for eleven years as a monitor engineer before starting the company in 2017. |
| Darnell Hayes | Tour designer, Memphis, the Delta and Chicago | Born in Clarksdale, raised in Memphis. Knows which juke joints open on a Thursday and which only pretend to. |
| Celeste Arceneaux | Tour designer, New Orleans and festivals | From the Seventh Ward. Plans the New Orleans tours around the club calendar and the festival grounds. |
| Wade Pruitt | Tour designer, Nashville and Austin | Played bass in Lower Broadway bands for six years. Still sits in on a Monday night when someone asks. |
| Jenna Kowalski | Tour designer, Detroit, Cleveland and Seattle | Grew up in Hamtramck on Motown and the Stooges. Built our northern tours. |
| Ruth Okafor | Operations and flights | Books the hotels, the vans, the show tickets and the optional flights, and rebooks when a storm closes an airport. |
| Caleb Moore | Guest care | Answers the bookings@ inbox, sends the travel documents and the playlists before you go. |
On the road
Our tour leaders
Each lives in the city they lead and knows its club calendar by heart. Your tour leader's name is in your travel documents two weeks before you go.
- Wade Pruittbased in Nashville
- Darnell Hayesbased in Memphis
- Celeste Arceneauxbased in New Orleans
- Rosa Delgadobased in Austin
- Andre Whitlowbased in Detroit
- Mara Lindqvistbased in Seattle
How we work
Five rules for every tour
Two or three nights in most cities
The best music happens late. A tour that leaves at seven every morning sends you to bed at ten. We stay long enough to do both.
The real rooms, not the gift shops
Studios where the records were cut, clubs where the musicians still play, the houses where they grew up. We skip the theme bars.
Small groups and named people
Up to 14 guests in one van, and a tour leader you can look up before you go.
Honest prices
Everything included is listed on the tour page. Optional extras are priced before you leave, and there are no shopping stops.
Pay the musicians
We buy tickets at the door price, tip the bands on the free nights we organize, and never ask a club to cut its cover charge for a group.
Email us
Tell us where you would like to go
Write to a travel advisor with the tour, the date and whether you want us to book flights. We answer within one business day with seats and the exact price. Nothing is charged until you decide.
- Tours[email protected]
- Everything else[email protected]
Email a travel advisor
[email protected]SubjectTour enquiry
What to include
- The tour and the departure date you would like
- How many are traveling, and double, twin or single rooms
- Whether you want us to book flights, and from which city
- Names as they appear on your photo IDs
- A phone number and any questions
We use what you send only to answer you and plan your trip. See our privacy policy.