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Hard-working Baton Rouge band Meriwether has signed a multi-record deal with a major record label, something most young musicians would dream about.

Meriwether spent the past several years touring, writing songs and recording an independent CD. Then, as manager Bert Landry puts it, performing at New York City’s CBGB’s changed their lives.

“In the industry, they always say that, ‘It only takes one person to get excited about the band.’ And we’ve had a few.”

The band is named for Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame—singer Drew Reilley is a direct descendant. Its music is along the amped-up, rock style of Weezer and New Found Glory, and now they share the same label. The quartet has signed a multi-record deal with Suretone records, a new imprint of music industry powerhouse Interscope.

“It all started with a guy from Sony Publishing who saw us at CBGB’s in New York who showed his friend, the A&R guy, our stuff,” explains singer Drew Reilley.

From there, it was one fortuitous connection after another: entertainment lawyer Todd Rubenstein, and then a Suretone exec jetted to Baton Rouge to hear them live.

“A week later, we were flying to L.A. for one of those secret private showcases you always here about and played for a room of five or six people from Suretone, including President Jordan Schur, who offered to sign the band immediately.”

“I don’t wanna say there was a bidding war, but there were a dozen labels who had contacted me in one way or another,” Landry adds, “and a few who were pretty upset when we chose to go with Suretone.”

The group is still feeling out what impact the deal is having on them. Reilley admits, “Funny, we haven’t even announced it to the public, but we’re already getting congrats. It hasn’t really changed much. We’re still doing the same things we’ve been doing...practicing and writing a lot.”

But there are plenty of pitfalls along the way to national commercial success. Does Meriwether, a band that has spent years making its bones touring, risk the kind of backlash experienced by The Terms? That band of former LSU students enjoyed rapidly growing popularity, signed a record contract with Maple Jam/ICON records, then drew caustic reactions from LSU students who felt the band sold out after agreeing to an LSU marketing gig.

“Really, I haven’t seen any of that,” says Reilley. “We are the band we are because of our fans. We are the same band we were three years ago—will be the same band three years from now—no matter what happens with the record deal.”

There were no signs of backlash at a recent Varsity Theatre show. The building was packed to capacity with fans who knew the words to every song and who kept the guys at the merchandise table busy. One local fan, John Brannan, gushed, “They busted their a-- touring and getting out there to get their recognition. They did it the right way.”

The band has built a following on their own, playing more than 250 shows nationwide, opening for acts such as Staind, Hoobastank and My Chemical Romance. Reilley says they’ve sold 10,000 records “out of the trunk.”

The band has also made smart use of online grassroots marketing, garnering upwards of 1.2 million plays on their MySpace and PureVolume sites.

So what trappings of success await a band that has embraced the DIY aesthetic whole-heartedly, and for so long?

“I’m gonna pay off my debt and buy a nice three-piece suit, maybe a nice haircut,” Reilly says. “It’d be cool to do a real music video and such, and maybe be able to play decent gear instead of $200 beaters.”

Of course, signing to a major label does not always equal immediate or lasting success. Music companies sign plenty of bands on exploratory deals to see what sticks and what doesn’t.

Why does Meriwether have a shot at lasting fame?

“New rock music really needs more artists from down here that have something to say for the genre,” Landry says. “As down-home Southern boys, Meriwether has a purity that you really don’t see in the mainstream.”

Meriwether certainly isn’t the first Baton Rouge band to sign a major league deal.

Local group Becky Sharp signed a deal with MCA in the 1990s, and Better Than Ezra went platinum for their album “Deluxe.”

The running joke about bands from Baton Rouge that hit it big is that the first thing they do is say they are from New Orleans. When asked if the band is going to stay rooted in town, Reilley offers, “We’ll probably do the record in Los Angeles and then hit the road for a long time. But we’ll always call Louisiana home. We won’t be one of those bands that moves to Los Angeles and claims to be from there, and we definitely won’t claim to be from New Orleans.”

Meriwether is recording a new record this month, then plans to spend the better part of the next year on the road before the album’s major label release. Their previous independent release, “Make Your Move,” will be re-released. The band is also working on a DVD. meriwetherrock.com.