Asleep at the Wheel Could Use a Strong Cup of Joe : Pop music review: This well-traveled outfit careens between reckless musical abandon and road-weary autopilot at the Crazy Horse.

By JIM WASHBURN

May 24, 1995 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

SANTA ANA — “The wheel keeps on rolling, over and over and over and over again,” sang Asleep at the Wheel leader Ray Benson at the Crazy Horse Steak house on Monday, in a clearly autobiographical song.

There is something at once ghostly and comical about his band’s endless comings and goings, as if Red Sovine’s Phantom 309 truck were being piloted by the Energizer Bunny.

For 25 years, Benson and Co. have been on the road. They stop long enough to dish out shows in a musical style that faded from popularity more than 40 years ago, and then pile back onto the bus.

While Benson is always behind the wheel, he’s worn out a busload of band members--something like 70 players have passed through the group. Somehow, he always manages to turn up hot players who do justice to the jazz-in-chaps chops of the Western swing music the band keeps alive. Outside of Merle Haggard, Benson has been nearly the only bandleader doing justice to the music through the years.

That was a fairly thankless job until two years ago, when Asleep at the Wheel released its “Tribute to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.” Wills had pioneered the music in the 1930s and the guest musicians who lined up to honor Wills’ music and Benson’s tenacity included Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, George Strait, Dolly Parton and Lyle Lovett. The album was a bestseller and earned the group three of its five career Grammys.

That, however, hasn’t changed road life all that much for the band. Typically, an Asleep at the Wheel show lives up somewhat to both the careening reckless musical abandon and the road-weary autopilot that its name implies. That was the case Monday, as some of the songs Benson has played thousands of times sounded flat as road kill, while others took off like jack rabbits.

“Miles and Miles of Texas” was as tedious as its subject matter; “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens,” “Route 66” and “Hot Rod Lincoln” were delivered energetically, but it was an automated Country Bear Jamboree sort of energy.

The band did take a stylish turn at the Tony Bennett standard “I Wanna Be Around,” with Benson lending some lush jazz chording on guitar. But his deep, craggy voice never grabbed hold of the lyric.

As usual, the 6-foot-6 singer seemed low-keyed to the point of slumber, delivering jokes and his usual juggling routine with a practiced minimum of effort. One Texas-themed joke of the evening: “Why did the chicken cross the road? To show the armadillo it could be done.”

The unfortunately titled “Big Balls in Cowtown”--sung by Strait on the Wills tribute album--was a fine effort all around. The Asleep at the Wheel membership has been fairly stable for the last, gee, 10 months or so, and they achieved a rich ensemble sound, tightly swinging but loose enough to breathe.

In her two years with the band, Cindy Cashdollar has developed into a solid stylist on her steel guitar, sharing lightning unison runs with Benson, who is often overlooked for the fine guitarist he is.

Fiddler Barbara Lamb, a recent addition, might not yet have all the lyricism or subtlety of past band members, but she certainly sent the rosin flying on up-tempo numbers, delivering a burning solo on the wildly accelerating encore, “Cotton-Eyed Joe.”

Other songs in the 16-song set included the usual suspects “The House of Blue Lights,” the instrumental “Red Wing” and those eternally warm biscuits from Wills’ songbook, “Take Me Back to Tulsa” and “Stay All Night.” There were a few not-so-frequently heard tunes as well, including the Benson-penned “Reelin’ Rockin’ Rodeo” and Wills’ “Blues for Dixie.”