The cool kids - Hazels

Sister Hazel's home may be Gainesville, Fla., the land of the Florida Gators, but the band holds Athens on a mighty high pedestal.

"Athens has always been like our backyard," said the band's lead singer, Ken Block. "We love it there. Playing Athens is like getting to sit at the cool kids' table."

Sister Hazel will play a free show with Blessid Union of Souls and the Athens-based Rattlers on Friday at the Navy School.

The band has played here a lot since gaining fame in 1997 with its megahit, "All for You." But while the music scene has changed a lot since then, Sister Hazel hasn't gone anywhere.

All five members still write, still tour and still bring the power every night, Block said. And they're still having a lot of success.

Sister Hazel's "Release" album debuted last August at No. 37 on the Billboard album charts, the band's highest ranking ever. The quintet spent this year touring and tracking yet another album, which will come out in October.

"We're keeping the Hazel machine rolling," Block said. "We have this army (of fans) that allows us to march, and they keep coming out."

Sister Hazel's fans have become as diverse as the band itself. Block and Co. can play a bunch of different styles at just about any venue anywhere.

They may have started as a college band, but they grew up. The music has grown up, too, and can lean in a lot of directions.

The diversity is a product of the different members' writing. For "Release," each member brought three of their best songs to record and then stayed in charge of producin