Album Notes

Jinder was born on Sunday 19th April 1981-incidentally the day that Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" entered the charts at #1. Growing up in Warwickshire, the heartland of english folk music, and living less than a mile from Cropredy, the home of the legendary folk festival and Fairport Convention, on summer nights often the music from a nearby barn dance or, once a year, the sound of live folk music from the Cropredy Festival would carry over the country fields and float through Jinder's bedroom window, stimulating the youngster's imagination with new sounds and images...this combined with the American country music that filled his family's house as a kid irrevocably shaped Jinder's musical future, providing inspiration and intrigue in equal measure. Skipping forward to 2000 and Jinder forms trailblazing Bournemouth rock band Candlefire. After debuting to a sellout Crowd live, in late '01 the band signed a recording deal with One Little Indian. In July '02 debut single "Sorrow Spreads Its Wings" was released, charting at #18 Indie and #97 Mainstream.

Album sessions at Jacobs in Guildford were, however, shelved after a roster shake-up prompted OLI to turn down their option to release a Candlefire album. Three brilliant, luminous tracks from those sessions remain but, following the amicable break-up of the band in early '04, they are unlikely to ever be released.
In late '03, Jinder formed duo "Olas & Jinder" and the two good friends hit the road, playing 180 dates over two UK tours and spending 9 solid months doing live work. After signing to Bournemouth indie FrontSide, the duo recorded debut album "The Best Of Days Ahead" which was the subject of lavish critical acclaim, but never reached the shops due to the collapse of distributor 3MV shortly before the scheduled release date.
Unbowed, Jinder is now a solo artist, his relish for live work and recording undiminished. Autumn/Winter 2004 saw him play dates with Jackie Leven, a UK tour with Martin Grech, and a headline south coast tour of his own, sign a deal with UK based independent label and folk/roots/alt.country specialists Folkwit Records, and complete the record available here, "Willow Park". Tired of compromise, Jinder was hell-bent on this album being his and his alone-the entire album was written, performed, produced, mixed and engineered by Jinder, the only outside influence being good friend Martin Atkinson, former Decca engineer and opera star Kiri Ti Kanawa's live sound engineer, who mastered the album at his Buckinghamshire studio, which was overseen by Jinder.
Over its 10 tracks and 40 minutes, the album stretches from the Smile-esque opener "Willow Park" through the pure country-folk of "Aimee", "Country Sadness" and "Waiting Line", and the gently rolling balladry of "In The Heat Of The Morning and "Sephora Hurricanes" to the gossamer-light closer "Wait In The Meadow". Willow Park is intended not just as an album but a real listening experience, in the tradition of Townes Van Zandt's "Our Mother The Mountain" or Leonard Cohen's "Songs Of Love And Hate". (written bt Bob Thomas of The Box fanzine)