t’s the question many musicians hate.

”How would you describe your sound?”

On its Web site, the band Blue Turtle Seduction, which will play at The Grove on Wednesday (see ”If You Go”), provides a typical answer: ”High-Altitude Bohemian Tribal Funk Grass.”

But drummer Adam Navone, 25, had a much better response when recently asked a similar question by The Bulletin.

”We try every genre out there,” he said, ”and we butcher all of them.”

That’s not true, of course, at least the second part. If it were, Blue Turtle Seduction wouldn’t have grown from an after-work hobby to a nationally touring act in four years.

It is true, however, that the five guys in Blue Turtle, as they call themselves, are not afraid to tackle any type of music that strikes their fancy. The band employs a bluegrass band’s arsenal of instruments, including guitar, bass, fiddle and mandolin, but there’s also a harmonica that lends a bluesy sound to some songs, and drums that steer the music into reggae or world territory on occasion.

For Navone and company, though, the essence of the band can be found on stage.

”It’s all about the live show. It’s really fun and danceable and a lot of energy, and that’s really what we’re all about,” he said. ”We have that fun reggae feel at times and sometimes it’s real bluegrassy. Lately, though, it’s had a lot of funkiness and more rockin’ … stuff going on.”

That’s no surprise for a band that has made its name on the road. Blue Turtle started in 2001 when a bunch of friends working together at a camp near South Lake Tahoe, Calif., started getting together and playing music in the cabins, around the campfire, and wherever else they wanted to unwind after a day of hiking, biking and sailing. (It’s tough work if you can get it, Navone acknowledges.)

At first, the jam session was like a ”musical co-op,” said Navone, taking in anyone who wanted to play along. And when the group ”took the circus to town” for its first gig, Navone said, each member was shocked when they saw the crowd that showed up.

”We were playing music every night and we were like, ‘This is so great.’ So we booked a show in town at our friend’s coffee shop, and the first show was huge,” he said. ”The people in Lake Tahoe were really looking for some kind of music scene to come out and have fun. There was something really special about it, and we thought, ‘We should keep doing this.’”

There were nine members of the band at that first show, but summer came and people left the area, and eventually, a core group of five guys became Blue Turtle. Since then, the band has climbed the well-worn ladder of endless touring to success, playing every big city west of the Rockies as well as most of the small towns in between.

”We’ve played all over up here in the Sierras,” he said. ”Tahoe is beautiful, but it’s not very centrally located for some things, so we’ve chained up our vehicles to go every which way from here.”

But it’s time to change the oil and check the fluids, too, as the band has plans to tour Hawaii for two weeks in February before heading out to the East Coast for the first time, Navone said. The idea is to ”build some buzz and get that ball rolling” behind Blue Turtle’s new album ”Deep Sea Rodeo,” he said.

It’s the band’s second release, recorded about a year ago in Reno. The album is a little different from Blue Turtle’s live show in that the songs are shorter and a little more pop-oriented in an effort to get the band on the radio. A little radio play would go a long way toward Blue Turtle’s goal of expanding its regular touring route.

”We’ve been slowly growing the region where we tour and we want to keep pushing further and further,” Navone said. ”We’ve never been to the East Coast, so that’s really exciting.”

And perhaps a little bittersweet, because more success means more touring and more time away from Lake Tahoe, where Navone grew up and the other four guys came to play and decided to stay. In fact, this is the first winter they didn’t buy ski passes in an area known for its skiing, Navone said.

”We played 225 dates last year and we recorded an album. And that doesn’t count our travel days,” he said. ”So we’re home for a little while, but we’re not going to be back for quite some time.”

If You Go

What: Blue Turtle Seduction

When: 10 p.m. Wednesday

Where: The Grove, 1033 N.W. Bond St., Bend

Cost: $10

Contact: 318-8578