Chris Stamey’s forthcoming solo album, Lovesick Blues, due on Yep Roc on February 5. Stamey is coming off of a banner year with The dB’s who reunited and released what is fast shaping up as a year-end critics’ favorite album, Falling Off The Sky. To celebrate this new effort, Chris will be performing a special Valentine's Day Weekend "Love and Heartbreak" show, acoustic "chamber-pop" arrangements of new and old songs, with Andriana Markano, viola; Charles Cleaver, piano; Lydia Kavanagh, harmonies. Joining them for this show will be Jane Scarpantoni on cello, who has toured and recorded with the Lounge Lizards, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, and the Indigo Girls, amongst many others. While his prior work has established Stamey as an incisive songwriter, compelling performer and innovative sonic architect, Lovesick Blues finds the artist staking out some new songwriting territory, with inspired results. Such vividly forthright new tunes as “Skin,” “Anyway,” “Astronomy” and “I Wrote This Song for You” deliver bittersweet, personal lyrics and inventive acoustic arrangements that employ strings, woodwinds and vocal harmonies to evoke the songs’ emotional landscapes.   Never one to repeat himself, Lovesick Blues is a departure from The dB’s. “This record is the closest I’ve ever gotten to the sound I hear in my head in the middle of the night,” he says of the 11-song collection. You’ll definitely recognize the Chris Stamey you’ve always known — veteran of Sneakers, The dB’s, deft production of artists varied from Alex Chilton to Alejandro Escovedo, and solo artist with acclaimed albums like Travels in the South and A Question of Temperature behind him. $15