If the sounds of the Middle East, the Caribbean and Africa, mixed with rock ‘n’ roll, come drifting out of the hall, the Beatroots must be in town.

Over the past few years, the Bar Harbor-based quintet has been busy gaining new fans with its energizing world beat-rock hybrid.

“Our music challenges people to put aside their preconceptions, and shake their butts to something different,” said bassist Bruce MacQuaid, 49, of Bass Harbor.

The Beatroots bring their latest music to Ellsworth tonight, as they debut their second album, “Secret Door,” at 7:30 p.m. at the Grand. Zulu Leprechauns will open the show.

The fivesome gathered on a recent sunny day to rehearse in a room at manager Joel Raymond’s rural Ellsworth home. After run-throughs of two cuts off the new album, “Tinder Jack” and “A Person Is,” they sat down to talk about the Beatroots’ winding, international journey to where they are now.

The band got its start in Madras, India, in 1987. Bowen Swersey, the group’s rhythm guitarist, saxophonist and bamboo flutist, was traveling with an ethnic music study group from Colgate University. Miriam Broady, who plays lead guitar, violin and various ethnic instruments, was learning through street singing and busking.

The two kindred souls married in 1991, then formed The Many Lands Dance Band, studying the music of Europe, Africa and North America, before returning to Bar Harbor. “Everything is music, with all those new sounds in foreign countries,” recalled Broady, 32, of Southwest Harbor. “You don’t know what people are saying, so you end up listening to the popcorn quality of the language, which is all different and new.”

MacQuaid hooked up with the duo in 1993, after catching their set at the Lompoc Cafe in Bar Harbor.

“They were doing their music of the Ottoman Empire thing,” he reminisced. “I grew up overseas and listened to this stuff all the time. So this was second nature to me. I asked if they wanted a bassist. I saw from what they were playing that they would be interested in some of the weird stuff in my head.”

Deep Springs Eternal (MacQuaid) and the Beavers (Broady and Swersey) practiced together for a couple of years before going public. They added drummer/percussionist Tom Rush in early 1996.

“Miriam called me up looking for a drummer,” said Rush, 30, of Bar Harbor. “I got three calls for a drummer that week, including an Ozzy Osbourne tribute band. So when I heard these sounds, I thought, `Wow, this is going to be quite challenging.’ It’s been interesting for me to apply what I had studied to this style of music. I’m still learning.”

Joining a year ago was Mike Bennett, who plays congas, timbales and percussion and is credited with bringing a Latin flavor to the group. Both producer John Dyer and Swersey called to recruit Bennett, inviting him to that night’s show.

“I was not impressed at all,” said Bennett, 36, of Somesville. “But I decided to listen to the tape. Then they invited me to sit in at the next night’s show at College of the Atlantic. It was a whole new ballgame that night, as there was a real energy. There was a dream happening with this band, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

One of the Beatroots’ highlights was performing at last August’s Phish-headlined Great Went event.

“That brought us to an audience that was there all along,” said Raymond. “It was like being anointed by God. It gave us credibility. We added 400-500 new names to our mailing list, so it was great exposure.”

The quintet released their debut album, “Dig the Beat,” on Raymond’s Huge Records about a year ago. So why are they coming out with another release so soon?

“The material was ready, a great batch of tunes, and there’s lots more where those come from,” Raymond said. “The band has a lot of momentum throughout the state of Maine, and we want that to continue. We want to always keep spreading it out, and getting to new audiences. You can’t just put out one record these days. You have to be a working band. Once you have a library to fall back on, it shows you are here to stay.”

The band members needed to record the songs for a sense of closure, Swersey said.

“A song isn’t done and out of the way until it’s on disc,” said Swersey, 32, of Southwest Harbor. “I couldn’t write anything new until `Secret Door’ was out of the way. Once we finished it, I came up with three new songs. So we needed to put it down and keep moving on.”

“Secret Door” is meant to be a little less ethnic, a little more accessible than “Dig the Beat.”

“We wanted to make it a little more radio-friendly,” said MacQuaid. “We produced it brighter, more in-your-face. We’re learning the studio and discovering how to get what we want.”

The Beatroots are hoping to keep from being pigeonholed with “Secret Door.”

“We sent `Dig the Beat’ to big-city stations,” Raymond said. “They would listen to the first cut [‘DimnaJuda,’ a Macedonian folk song] and pass it off to the host of their world-beat show, never hearing the rock cuts that followed.”

A big part of the Beatroots’ sound is the audience, who help the songs to evolve, band members said.

“The band is only two-thirds of the deal,” MacQuaid said. “The audience is the other third of the picture. They give us energy, we give them energy, there’s this great synergistic thing that happens.”

“Our purpose at each show is to get people to get up and dance,” Swersey added.

What’s ahead for the Beatroots? They are already playing regularly in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and northern Massachusetts, and they hope to branch out into the rest of New England. They also want to move out of barrooms and into theaters, dance halls and outdoor festivals.

Most of the quintet’s members are concentrating exclusively on the music, without day jobs.

“We could all work more, and make more money,” said Raymond. “But this is what everyone wants to do, and it’s within our reach. It happened in Burlington to Phish, and there’s no reason it can’t happen in Down East Maine to The Beatroots.”

Tickets for the Zulu Leprechauns/Beatroots show can be purchased by calling 667-9500 or at the following outlets: Grasshopper Shops in Ellsworth and Bangor, Blue Horizon Video in Blue Hill, Video Video in Bar Harbor, Bay Market in Surry, Wild Rufus in Camden, and Fertile Mind Bookstore in Belfast.