There are echoes of a lot of “Making it in Nashville” tales in “The Neon Highway” — “Crazy Heart,” “Honky Tonk Man” and “Tender Mercies” among them.

There’s a singer with a song he can thinks can change his life, a tune composed in optimism but tainted by tragedy. And there’s an unpleasant burnt-out has-been, a “country music legend,” who might be able to make it happen.

That fellow, named Claude Allen, is played by Beau Bridges here, further reinforcing the connection to his brother Jeff Bridges’ Oscar-winning turn in “Crazy Heart.” Beau, you might remember, can sing a bit, too. His weathered, cracking and “out of practice” old man’s voice is put to great use here.

But director and co-writer William Wages’ “Neon Highway,” formerly titled “Unsung Hero,” is a mopey affair, and some of that moping includes missteps, twists that stop the picture cold and make it drag through the middle acts.

A fine finish earns it a “nice try” review. But a couple of the tunes, a few scenes and the lead performances hint at a better movie that was lost in the bargain.

Rob Mayes, a singer and sometime actor (of TV movies like “Just Jake,” “The Christmas Edition”) stars as Wayne Collins, whom we meet as he and his brother (T.J. Power) take their shot at the big time at Bobby’s Nashville roadhouse, where stars are discovered.

A Jeep wreck later that night shatters those dreams.

Years afterward, Columbus, Georgia family man Wayne has a son ready for the University of Tennessee, but his telephone repair contract work and his teacher-wife’s (Jennifer Bowles) salary won’t get him there.

Lo and behold, a slovenly old coot moves into an old farm and needs wifi help. And his fancy, old-school electric guitar gives him away as Claude Allen (Bridges), a Nashville icon.

The best scenes in “Neon Highway” show the wary way the two men size each other up. Claude is dismissive and ornery and isn’t impressed until Wayne mentions playing at Bobby’s in Nashville. Claude will remain unimpressed — “Just what the world needs, another picker” — by Wayne’s country wannabe work-partner, the boss’s son.

Wayne presses a song on the old man, refusing to hear Claude’s “done with all that, now” protests. Claude takes the song, makes it “better,” and next thing we know, he’s talked Wayne into taking off for Nashville.

Beau has always been the better Bridges at playing unlikeable, and that pays off as Claude seems downright shifty. He wants to do things “my way,” even if his way includes reaching out to Music City contacts who are no longer working, or who hold grudges about the past.

Wayne, like the viewer, suspects Claude of attempting to steal his song.

Not enough is made of that tension. And nothing much fun comes from the odyssey of their drive to Nashville, checking in at a weather-beaten and familiar (to Claude) motel run by picker pal Ray (Sam Hennings) and his sister (Sandra Lee-Oian Thomas), an old flame of Claude’s.

A lot of these Nashville scenes and situations have “Thing Called Love” comic potential, and seem dull if not downright pointless without that touch.

There are also underdeveloped characters and plot dead ends, which make the picture drag. And one big “twist” is just dead weight on the entire enterprise.

The song, “Neon Highway,” isn’t bad. But one that The Collins Brothers sing in that opening scene, a dopey ditty about “I need dirt on my truck, I need dirt on these roads…I need dirt on my toes,” sounds like a hit.

That was your movie, guys. That sets a tone that would have played better than this fumbled melodramatic reach for “maudlin.”

Still a “nice try,” though.

Rating: PG-13, alcohol abuse, profanity

Cast: Beau Bridges, Rob Mayes, Sandra Lee-Oian Thomas, Jennifer Bowles, Sam Hennings and Wilbur Fitzgerald.

Credits: Directed by William Wages, scripted by Phillip Bellury and William Wages. A Mountain Pictures release.

Running time: 1:52