Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: Aggielife

Media Credit: File - The Battalion Neely Lewis consists of Gary Hubbard III, lead vocals, guitar, mandolin and Class of 2007 sports management major; Gieh Larson, banjo and Class of 2007 offshore engineering major; Cody Newman, fiddle and Class of 2007 turf grass management major; Chris Campbell, upright bass and Wesley Marcel, rhythm guitar and senior forestry major. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: File - The Battalion

The Neeley Lewis band claims everything from Americana to Zappa as musical influences. With influences as diverse as an A-Z listing, one would expect the band to showcase a sound hard to classify.

"We wanted to bring College Station something different, something really different," said Gary Hubbard, who plays guitar, mandolin and sings for the band. "We're not really like anything you would hear on the radio."

Andrew Stiver is credited with getting the band together.

"Andrew and I roomed together when we first got to A&M," Hubbard said. "We played our first gig at Potbelly's in August 2006. At that time it was just the two of us. From there, we just started adding instruments."

By the time the dust had cleared for the band, they found themselves with an array of instruments from an upright bass to a banjo.

"Gieh Larson is our banjo player. He's also Asian, so he's our Asian cowboy," Hubbard laughed.

Over the next few months, the band said they couldn't find a place they did not want to take their music. More importantly, they could not find a place where they did not enjoy a good crowd.

"We're really proud of the fact that we write music that is unique and different, but we really take pride in the fact that people actually enjoy our music," Hubbard said.

Hubbard now fronts the band, as Stiver went to work at Marcel's, a five-star restaurant in Washington, D.C. Hubbard said there were no hard feelings about Stiver's departure.

In an attempt to classify their sound, the band has synthesized the term "Texas Grass" as the official label to their genre.

"We have all the instruments you would usually find in a bluegrass band, but we use them to create more of a Texas country and rock 'n' roll feel," Hubbard said.

Another unique aspect of the band is their name. A quick glance at the lineup shows that no one in the band carries the name "Neeley" or "Lewis."

"Neeley Lewis is our lawyer," Hubbard said. "I met him a couple of years ago and became good friends with him when I arrived in College Station. He spends a lot of time on Northgate and most people know the '60-year-old lawyer guy' who's always up there. But he was a bit of a mentor for all of us so we decided to name our band in honor of him. He's a great friend and mentor and, as a lawyer, he's helped to keep us out of trouble."

The band doesn't know exactly what is on the horizon, but they know that music is going to play a central role in all their lives.

"We'll be losing [Gieh] Larson at the end of the semester to an offshore contract offer he's received, but we'll continue to make music, even if it's not together," Hubbard said. "Music is just something that's a love for all of us. No matter where we go, music will be something we all do. We're just going to go wherever the music takes us."

If you're interested in finding out more about the band, check out their myspace at www.myspace.com/neeleylewisband.

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