POP MUSIC REVIEW : Riders Keep Tunes Fresh With Frontier Spirit : The trio stays true to the American West with renditions of traditional songs at its show Monday at the Crazy Horse.

It was just days ago that CBS announced that the sun has set on Riders in the Sky’s Saturday morning TV series, so you’d think at least one discouraging word might have been heard about it during the trio’s performance Monday at the Crazy Horse. Then again, that might be the easy way, but it wouldn’t be . . . the Cowboy Way.

The Riders were around long before network television came a-courtin’, and it’s apparent it’ll take more than a canceled TV show to take the smiles off their faces, the sheen out of their wondrous three-part harmonies or the fundamental joy out of their songs of the lone prairie.

It’s something of a minor miracle that after 15 years of touring, recording, radio broadcasts and TV appearances, the Riders still manage to sound fresh and continually enthralled with the music of the American West.

Their 75-minute set, the first of two sold-out shows Monday and, as straight man Ranger Doug pointed out, “the 2,545th appearance” of their career, was as much (perhaps more) comedy as music, which helps explain their ability to win over any audience. (Ever mindful of the cowboy’s duty to instill solid values in the young ‘uns, many of whom accompanied their parents to Monday’s early show, they offered such timeless tips as “Don’t forget to help Mom in the kitchen!” and “Always drink upstream from the herd.”)

If there is a dark side to this largely sunshine-soaked story it’s that the Riders’ music--straightforward and heartfelt renditions of traditional Western songs, along with originals in the same vein--has taken a back seat to the loony onstage shtick.

But then, it’s only because the musical foundation can be taken for granted that the group can stray as far as it does with mock commercials for bassist “Too Slim’s Mercantile” and an extended chat with “Too Jaws,” a talking equine skull that’s the sagebrush answer to Henny Youngman.

Case in point: fiddler Woody Paul turned the perennial “Buffalo Gals” into a virtual Celtic reel, while guitarist Ranger Doug quietly accompanied all night with crisp, clean, chord-gorging rhythm that owed more to Count Basie sideman Freddie Green than to Gene Autry.

When they abandoned the clowning entirely on the Autry-Smiley Burnett ballad “Ridin’ Down the Canyon (When the Desert Sun Goes Down)”, they captured both the feeling of utter solitude and the awe at the West’s natural beauty that many a cowpoke must have felt at the end of a day.

The only real musical surprise was what seemed to be an impromptu version of “Surfin’ U.S.A.” rendered in answer to a member of the audience who thought he was joking in shouting it out during a request segment. (Who but a yodeler par excellence such as Ranger Doug could hit those stratospheric Brian Wilson high harmonies?)

The trio even successfully violated one of the primary tenets of show business--never share a stage with animals or children--by holding their own with a dozen youngsters they invited onstage for a silly sing-along. One girl, who turned out to be one of the regulars on the Riders’ soon-to-be-defunct TV show, was asked by the straight-faced Woody Paul: “What about your life has changed now that you’re a big star on CBS?”

“Nothing,” she replied with a giggle, causing the house to erupt in laughter. Not to be outshone, Ranger Doug quickly quipped, “Just like mine.”

It’s emblematic of the Riders’ career that while they’ve shifted the emphasis a bit to keep the commercial powers-that-be satisfied, they haven’t changed their basic commitment to perpetuate the simple, honest values that define the American frontier spirit.

And when you get right down to it, that’s the Cowboy Way.