Steamboat Springs — In life and in the blues, Tab Benoit figures we're all in this together.

That's how the Louisiana-born Benoit has been approaching his live show since getting an early start at a Bayou juke joint and hitting the New Orleans blues scene in the early 1990s. To put everyone on the same level walking into a concert, Benoit rarely rehearses, and he doesn't plan set lists. He just shows up, sings and waits to see what happens.

Benoit and his band are back in Steamboat for the first time in a few years with a show at 9 p.m. Thursday at Ghost Ranch Saloon.

The blues master talked with the Steamboat Pilot & Today about going onstage blind, changing up his show for each audience and making some powerful music in the process.

Steamboat Pilot & Today: Can you describe what people can expect from your show here?

Tab Benoit: Not really.

SP&T: How's that?

TB: There's no plan. I pretty much play requests, and I play whatever feels good. I don't have a set way of doing anything, and I don't walk in with any preplanned show. It's all of us together.

SP&T: Why do you approach shows that way?

TB: It keeps it free and open, and that's where the magic is. You can't plan the magic; it has to happen by itself, and that's the best way you can do it. That's the way the blues has always been.

SP&T: Did you come to that style during your years of performing, or is it something you've always done?

TB: It's something I've always done. It's probably why I ended up playing the style of music that I do, because that's what fit me best. Some people are uncomfortable not knowing what's going to happen, and some people are more comfortable - and I'm one of those.

SP&T: Can you describe at all what kind of styles you might take on, what kinds of songs you might play?

TB: I don't know - that's the fun part. I don't know what I'm going to do; the band doesn't know what we're going to do; the crowd doesn't know what we're going to do. You'll see some playing, and there will be some guitar, bass and drums, and some singing.

SP&T: What about the blues makes that approach work for you?

TB: Blues is a basic form of : raw emotion - nothing is written out, and nothing's ever come out the same. It's like if you were painting pictures, the blues would be using maybe just the primary colors and a big fat brush and coming up with a beautiful piece of work using the minimal amount of tools. : The less tools you have, the more heart you have to put into it, and you never know what your heart is going to feel from one day to the next.