By the time Mary Kay Place made 1985′s Smooth Talk, the film adapted from a Joyce Carol Oates story that so elegantly announced the arrival of Laura Dern as a major actress, most of the audience had already forgotten her role as a country singer in Norman Lear’s trend-setting ’70s sitcom “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”.

Somewhere amid Smooth Talk is a wonderful scene in which Place and Dern (as a mother and daughter too angry to speak to each other) sing the same song, horribly off-key, in two different rooms. That’s about as much postscript as Place has ever given to the two fine country albums she made — Tonite! At the Capri Lounge, Loretta Haggers and Aimin’ To Please — during the Carter administration.

Now, it’s true enough that both albums were made because Place’s character had to sing onscreen, and there was (or was perceived to be) a market for the work of “Loretta Haggers.” But like the show itself, Place/Haggers worked because the character had equal parts irony and honesty. And because Mary Kay Place, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, really could sing — and write — a fine country song.

And other than recording a couple songs that originated on the show (“Vitamin L”, “Baby Boy”, and “Streets Of This Town [Ode To Fernwood]“), producer Brian Ahern made few apparent concessions to the sitcom. Instead, he surrounded Place with first-rate musicians, including a couple of Dillards and Rodney Crowell, and first-rate country singers including Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Anne Murray, and Willie Nelson.

It wasn’t quite the cash cow Hollywood probably hoped for, but “Baby Boy” and Place’s duet with Willie, a remake of “Something To Brag About” (a Charlie Louvin/Melba Montgomery duet, courtesy Bobby Braddock, from 1970), both went to #11 on the country charts. In the end, like “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” (and its successors, “Fernwood 2 Night” and “Forever Fernwood”), these albums became obscure cult favorites, valued more for their kitsch than their content.

Which is a pity, because nobody was fooling around in the studio. Place has a bright, often sassy voice, and the material is, overall, better than much of what was on country radio in the 1970s (let alone today). And she had the good sense never to inject her onscreen persona into the music as more than a wink and a nod.

Chestnuts include Shel Silverstein’s tender (really) “Paintin’ Her Fingernails”, “Don’t Make Love (To A Country Music Singer)” — which begs for revival — and Crowell’s “You Can’t Go To Heaven (If You Don’t Have A Good Time)”. The “Mary Hartman” songs wear well, and Ahern’s production gives both albums a buoyant, joyous spirit, in keeping with the sunny smile Place wore onscreen.

She doesn’t sing anymore, or so the liner notes on this Australian twofer say. And she doesn’t have to, as a successful actress, screenwriter, and director. But she sure could when she wanted to, and it’s sure good to hear these songs again.