When Reba McEntire's 20-plus-year marriage to Narvel Blackstock ended in 2015, she was understandably devastated; after all, she's said that didn't want a divorce. But now, the feisty redhead is moving on -- and she's ready to love again.

In the past few years, in addition to losing her marriage, McEntire also lost her father, who passed away in 2014. And while stars -- country and otherwise -- may appear put together on the outside (thanks to makeup artists, publicists and the like), in the face of tragedy and pain, McEntire says, “I’m just like everybody else.”

"I cry, I scream, I shout … but not often. Not often," McEntire tells Taste of Country. "I’m more like a volcano: I hold it in and can try to stay steady, I can do this, do this — and then it just explodes, and then I’m okay.”

Vulnerability, pain and now hope are all captured on McEntire's new record, Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope. That level of openness wasn't easy for the singer ... but it was healing.

“The album was definitely part of the healing,” McEntire says. "It helped me through a lot."

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Like anyone going through heartbreaking times, healing was, and is, a process for McEntire.

“I would say I am real close to being healed. I feel a lot better at this point in the year than I did a year ago, or even six months ago," the artist says. "What I’m learning is to live every day and take that day to live it. And don’t think about the past. What’s past is past; you can’t do anything about it except forgive, forget and go on. And then the future, that’s tomorrow.”

Speaking of the future: Is Reba looking for love? In one word, "Yes."

“Yes, I’m ready to go back in love,” McEntire admits. “When you get to point in your life where you’re back, you think, ‘Well, I gotta fix me before can I go out and have a relationship with somebody else.’ And I think I’m getting close. I think I might be a great companion or partner now.”

McEntire has a chock-full schedule, so it may be hard to slip in a few dates at the moment: She's headlining two shows at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, heading back to Las Vegas for a 2017 run with Brooks & Dunn, and possibly starring in a Southern gothic television show.

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