Miranda Lambert is incredibly happy, and ready for Country Lakeshake, new tour

Some have said the eyes are the window to the soul. And if that is indeed the case, Miranda Lambert’s soul is as happy and content and re-energized as it’s ever been.

“I’m thankful people are noticing that,” Lambert gushed just days after making a triumphant return to the stage at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville after a 10-month break from performing. “I’ve always had that fire in me, but sometimes, life beats the hell out of you.”

“You go though ups and downs and you go through really hard things in the public eye and it ain’t easy,” continues the 35-year-old music icon whose 2016 album “The Weight of These Wings” was creatively driven by her divorce from country superstar Blake Shelton. “It’s probably the thing I hate the most, the thing I hate more than anything. I love getting up on stage and playing music, but I did not sign up for people prying into my private life.”

Indeed, the public has long seemed to enjoy prying into the private life of the girl from Longview, Texas, the girl who has grown into a woman before our eyes, the woman who has turned country music upside-down, the woman who has found love and lost love and never once tried to hide her happiness or her sadness from her fans.

“It’s not like I can call in sick in this business,” laughs Lambert, who made major news earlier this year when she married NYPD office Brendan McLoughlin after a whirlwind romance that had its beginnings on a crowded street in Times Square. “But I never hide from my fans. I am who I am and right now I am genuinely happy. People are telling me I’m glowing from the inside.”

And it’s this glow that looks to shine bright at Chicago’s Fifth-Annual Country LakeShake, the three-day country music festival returning to Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island on June 21-23. On June 21 Lambert finds herself at the helm of an all female lineup that includes fellow country music firecrackers Maren Morris, Lauren Alaina, Cassadee Pope and Lindsay Ell.

“I just got the chills when you said that I’m ‘at the helm,’ ” she laughs of her premiere spot at the weekend festival, which also includes headliners Keith Urban on June 22 and Luke Bryan on June 23. “I mean, these women have given me so much fuel personally and professionally and creatively. [Pauses] It can be very hard to be stuck in the middle of a whole lineup of dudes.”

Lambert’s appearance at the festival also serves as a preview of what is to come when the singer heads out on her Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour kicking off Sept. 13. The road show features support from fellow music change-makers such as Elle King, Caylee Hammack, Tenille Townes and Ashley McBryde.

Lambert’s upcoming tour will also feature Morris, who recently made headlines over a topless yet fairly tame photo shoot with Playboy.

“Maren is hot, so I say good for her,” laughs Lambert. “Hey, us women, we are doing something right. Let them keep blogging and putting us on magazine covers. We must be important enough to keep talking about.”

Taking the Country LakeShake stage alongside Lambert will also be her fellow Pistol Annies, the country music super trio that includes the insane talents of Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe.

“Give me a second to think about this because I haven’t counted up our stats in a while,” Lambert says. “Ok, between us, I think we have three husbands, two ex-husbands, four babies, one step-baby and 27 animals, or something like that. [Laughs] We have gone through all of these life changes together as a band and as women.”

And yes, those life changes have often found their way into Lambert’s music. She says her new album, due in the fall, will be infused with a whole new energy.

“I would call it old Miranda, but a Miranda at a whole new level, if that makes any sense,” says Lambert. “It’s not going to be love song overload or anything like that. [Laughs] I made a career on being a rock and roller and I think fans are going to hear that throughout. And yeah, there is this vibe of being happy that goes through this album. I am really, really happy.”

Tricia Despres is a local freelance writer.