When trying to define Trampled by Turtles, it can be a tough undertaking.

Out of the gate, you assume the Duluth, Minnesota-based act are bluegrass. I mean, they have had four albums top Billboard’s Bluegrass chart, with another two settling in at No. 2.

However, you can also find them on Billboard’s Rock, Americana/Folk, and Alternative charts.

While they’re used to being lumped into an array of genres, mandolinst Erik Berry wants you to know they are not jamgrass.

“The big thing is we don’t jam,” he said during a phone interview. “We all spent time being fans of jam bands, I myself am a Deadhead. So, we all appreciate the idea. In the very early days, we would try to stretch something and be like, ‘Ugh. We’re not very good at this.’ ”

Well, jamming may be one of the few things they are not good at, but they can be forgiven since they are so at so many other things.

You’ll get the chances to see some of those things when they bring their high-energy show to The Clyde Theatre on Saturday, Dec. 14, with local newgrass favorites Debutants opening things up.

Same instruments, different sound

Like many bands featuring a mandolin, banjo, cello, and guitar, Trampled by Turtles are continually being placed in a box they may not feel they belong in.

“One example I used to give is Bob Marley & The Wailers and Radiohead have the same instrumental lineup,” Berry said. “It never bothers anybody that they don’t sound like each other. And they don’t sound anything like each other. 

“It always kind of blows my mind that like, ‘You have a guitar. Why don’t you sound like Van Halen?’ You don’t have to sound like something because your instruments are like that. 

“But bluegrass music has a very cohesive thing going on. We’re on the sides of it, because we’re not so radically different. We have not reinvented the wheel. But putting us nowhere near bluegrass doesn’t make any sense either.”

What does make sense is sitting back and just enjoying the music without feeling the need to classify it. And with Trampled, you’re gonna hear something you enjoy, whether you know it or not.

That’s what happened when they went on tour with country superstar Zach Bryan in 2023. 

“That was an enormous tour for us,” Berry said. “I feel very confident that we were never playing for zero percent Trampled by Turtles fans in there, but we were also never playing for more than 15 percent Trampled by Turtles fans. It was a different scene.” 

Finding good footing

Trampled formed in 2003 shortly after frontman Dave Simonett had his gear stolen. Legend has it that with his electric equipment gone, Simonett turned to bluegrass and folk as he was only left with his acoustic.

While their history is chronicled, Berry did point out that it’s not to be followed word for word.

“He did have all his stuff stolen, but he was also interested in putting together an acoustic project,” Berry said. “His electric project was winding down because some of them were university students, and they were graduating and whatnot.”

That acoustic project included Simonett, Berry, Dave Carroll on banjo, and Tim Saxhaug on bass in 2003. A few years later, Ryan Young joined on fiddle, and Eamonn McLain joined the group on cello in 2014.

After being intrigued by the mandolin years earlier, Berry got some help to get better acquainted with the instrument. 

“When the band first got together, I went into the record store in Duluth and said, ‘I just joined a bluegrass band on mandolin and I have no idea what I’m doing.’ They were very cool. They recommended I buy Bill Monroe’s greatest hits and the latest Yonder Mountain String Band record,” Berry said. “They were like, ‘This is where it started, and this is where it is right now.’ I was like, ‘Perfect.’ ”

Along with him finding his way on the mandolin, the band were also finding their way.

“There was a period of time, like in the first five years of the band, that there was a lot of bluegrass (listening),” Berry said. “I think that was to kind of absorb the vocabulary of how that lineup of instruments works together. Then, there was absolutely a move to not listen to so much of it so that we wouldn’t be sounding like everyone else.”

Despite not trying to sound like a bluegrass band, the comparisons were inevitable.

“So, there was a point early in our career where if you knew nothing about bluegrass, we totally sounded like a bluegrass band,” he said. “We had mandolin, banjo, guitar, and there’s high vocal harmonies, and the songs are kind of quick.

“But if you know something about bluegrass, it’s like, ‘Wait a minute. This isn’t right. They’re not doing it the way bluegrass people do it.’ It’s because we weren’t trying to do it that way. In some instances, we didn’t even know you could. A lot of it was, ‘We’re having fun.’ ”

Trying new things

As they were “having fun,” they released their debut album in 2004, Songs From a Ghost Town. 

They would begin to see their names entering the charts with their fourth album, Duluth, which reached No. 8 on Bluegrass chart. One album later, and Palomino was reaching No. 1 on the chart in 2010, followed by another No. 1 with Stars and Satellites in 2012.

Their ninth and 10th albums, Life Is Good on the Open Road and Alpenglow, the latter produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, also reached No. 1.

While they’ve been on a hot streak, their latest project sees them trying something totally new.

The five-song EP Always Here was released in September. While it’s a great listen, what separates it is Simonett also recorded it with his side project Dead Man Winter. So, all five songs appear on each album, but in different forms.

“Generally, when Dave’s writing songs, he knows full well that he’s writing a Trampled song or a Dead Man Winter song or a solo song, and he has other projects that are basically him, but he uses a different name so he can get weird,” Berry said.

“I’m only in the one, so I don’t really know what makes a Dead Man Winter song different. I’ve listened to them and jammed with Dead Man Winter, but I don’t know how he figures, ‘Oh, this is a Dead Man Winter song.’

“But for this particular batch of five songs, he was like, ‘I don’t know and I kinda want to see what happens when they both take a crack at it.’ The rest of us were like, ‘Well, sure. Why not?’ ”

And that concept is not the only way Trampled have been extending their creative wings.

“The theme of the last couple of years has been trying new things,” Berry said. “We have this project and a handful of things in the can where we’ve recorded with other musicians. We’ve got some cover songs we’ve worked on. It’s just a little bit of a different approach the past couple years. 

“Normally, it’s like, ‘We’re going to go into the studio and make a record.’ The last couple of years, it’s been more, ‘We’re going to go into the studio and just cut a track and see what happens.’ This kind of fits into the ethos of trying new things in the studio.”

As they continue to try out new things, swing on out to The Clyde where you may even run into a familiar face.

“We’re pleased to be playing in Fort Wayne for the first time because our merch guy (Carey Abrams) is from Fort Wayne, and we’ve never been there before,” Berry said.

“It’s like a hometown show for one of our guys.”