TV REVIEWS : Willie Nelson Salute: Howdy to the Big 6-0

What does Willie Nelson’s birthday salute (airing at 9 tonight on CBS, Channels 2 and 8) have in common with last week’s Bob Hope birthday salute? A golf joke, Tom & Roseanne, a presidential greeting . . . that’s about it.

“Willie Nelson: The Big 6-0” is organized into sections--Willie the singer, Willie the songwriter, Willie the humanitarian, etc., but it still tends to meander at its own amiable, leisurely pace. The absence of contrived momentum and razzle-dazzle allows you to savor the art of a performer who has transcended classification as a country singer to become a giant of American music.

Some of the pop artists who appear on his latest album are on hand, including Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt and Bob Dylan. Dylanologists might spend some time trying to figure out why Bob looks so young and fit, and why his interview comments are so lucid.

Ray Charles, Travis Tritt, B.B. King, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett--it’s all first-rate company. But perhaps the highest testimony to Nelson’s magnetism comes in the form of President Clinton’s taped birthday salute. The warm words from the White House must have tickled the keen ironic sense of popular music’s most visible Ross Perot supporter.