Now he can appreciate all the training he has learned over the years in his 30-plus years of playing and see some of the rewards -- like playing annually at the Sunfest in Bartlesville along with bigger acts such as Tommy Emmanuel, AppologetiX and Matt Zarb.
"It is rewarding. You just keep going up, getting to play on the same stage with Tommy Emmanuel, Edgar Cruz and Ruben Romero ... getting to play with Matt Zarb, who is known not only in Australia, but across the country," Hamlin said.
And the music doesn't stop there.
"Music always grows. I look back on what I used five years ago and think, 'I am not using that.'"
The secret to his success -- not letting writer's block get him down!
"My writing process, usually the hook of the song just comes and I work with it. With writer's block, I pull out my tools in music theory. With my key on a piece of paper, I can go any direction I want. I come up with something crazy and I think 'Where am I going to go?' I have a project studio in my house and do a lot of recording and will go lay down licks and stuff I don't want to forget. I have tape after tape. I will go look at the stuff I did five years ago and see if there is something I can add. I took something two years ago I recorded previously and put it together with another lick and recorded it on my solo album Silk & Steel and that was the song, "Strollin." Those were two pieces from different times but that only comes every once and awhile because as a musician, you have to remember what you recorded!" he said.
Now on his fifth album, still untitled, Hamlin promises he won't disappoint, though it won't have any original compositions this time around. He is planning to include "Ode to Joy" and it will have plenty from the classical side as well as some Spanish pieces.
"I was thinking of playing some things from the Baroque era, some Beethoven. It will probably be from different eras. On the Spanish side, I am going to do songs like "Lagrime" and "Prelude in E Minor". The Spanish side, people may not recognize right off but they hear it and they will go, 'Oh, I know that one, I have heard it before,'" Hamlin explained.
Album No. 6 is already in the works and he hasn't completely finished his newest creation.
"I want to do a CD that is original and has everything: Jazz, classical, Spanish guitar. It will be a compilation of all kinds of music," he said.
While the artwork for his new album is finished, a title remains elusive.
"The name I wanted was taken by my teacher Edgar (Cruz), so I cannot use that," he explained.
But title or no title, Hamlin will be traveling again this summer, hitting Boston and Chicago. Album No. 5 will be released later this year.
