HERE’S a good idea to fill the live concert void. Al Stewart, from his Los Angeles home, tells stories of his life while his US backing band, set up in an empty Chicago music venue, interject every now and then to play some of the musical highlights of his career.

It’s an appealing and informative format that works both for the uninitiated as an introduction to Stewart’s work and for his long-established fan base as a nostalgic run-through of his songs and stories.

Guided gently by enthusiastic questioning from the Empty Pockets joint vocalists, Josh Solomon and Erika Brett, Stewart sets off on a two-hour journey of reminiscence that begins with his teenage years as a rock’n’roller in mid-1950s Bournemouth, progresses through his involvement in the British folk boom of the 1960s and comes out the other side to cover his 1970s mainstream chart success in the US.

As anecdotes flow about encounters with Leonard Cohen, Jackson C Frank, Paul Simon, John Lennon and others, at suitable junctures the talk is interrupted by music from the band, who initially set off on renditions of songs that are intertwined with Stewart’s early narrative, including Love Minus Zero by Bob Dylan and a beguiling version of Fairport Convention’s Meet on the Ledge.

Attention then switches to Stewart’s own portfolio of songs, including In Brooklyn from breakthrough 1969 album Love Chronicles, Carol from the 1975 album Modern Times, which brought him fame in the US, and Year of the Cat, a US hit single.

The Empty Pockets deliver an impressively smooth interpretation of that excellent song and do ample justice to all of Stewart’s others, including On the Border, Broadway Hotel and Time Passages.

That brings us to 1978 and, although Stewart has produced much more music since then, it seems a good juncture to bring things to a halt.

Billed as the “first ever episode of Stories and Songs,” the suggestion is that there might be a second outing, perhaps looking at Stewart’s later output as well as further livestreams featuring other artists.

Let’s hope so — it’s an entertaining way of keeping live music on the road, whether in lockdown or not.

Available to watch at £12 from citywinerychi.veeps.com/stream/events/13b16bb3fb9d.