HEART, BABY!: the true story behind the film The Hammer

WARNING: explicit description of prison violence.   “LOVE is a Round Room,” to quote the end song of the film THE HAMMER aka Heart, Baby! was written by director Angela Shelton and prison reform advocate Andy Dixon.     In this special episode the real Doc and George share with director Angela Shelton their thoughts on the cast and crew of THE HAMMER aka Heart, Baby! as well as their favorite scenes and characters.   Starting the conversation are clips from Dennis Ferrier’s Special FERRIER FILES: Why the greatest boxer you've never heard of chose jail over freedom on Fox17 Nashville (shared with permission).   Find out more about the true stories behind beloved real-life characters Sam (Bryce Romero), Randy (Keir O’Donnell), Gypsy (Robert Mello), Dixie (Big Freedia) and Preacher Robin (Darrell Foster).   GET THE DVD NOW at Walmart, Target, Amazon and Redbox.  WATCH ONLINE on Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango, Google Play, MovieSpree 

In Episode 5 Andy “Doc” Dixon and George “The Hammer” Martin talk about prison reform with writer/director Angela Shelton. We hope you find the discussions provoking, from private prison corporations and their roots in slavery to wounded people needing a confessional. We know there is a problem. Now we can begin to make the change.  We hope this episode opens your heart and mind. Read the book Felonism, hating in plain sight written by Andy and his wife Linda at felonism . com They also bring up Angela’s work with healing from trauma work and the Sword of Trauma concept. She hosts another podcast with the co-producer of The Hammer called 101 Ways to Heal That Sh*t. Both are on survivormanual dot com. 

SPOILER ALERT - George is alive and talking! In Episode 4 George shares all kinds of stories with writer/director Angela Shelton including how the prison system messed up his paperwork and had him in as a blind white dude. (Now that’s some real fake news!) George shares fantastic BOXING stories and how he sent a letter to John Tate’s manager Ace Miller to tell him to send his best in there. George was arrested right after he turned 18 for burglary and got a 40 year sentence for robbery. Inside he became a boxer and is to this day undefeated. He humbly admits that he never saw the goodness in himself that others did, even after he knocked out everyone. He shares about his relationship with his transgender cellmate Crystal. “I was the only one on the compound holding hands. And then other dudes started doing the same thing. The rec would say, ‘Everybody want to be George Martin.’”     George shares how he stopped judging after being inspired by Crystal. “She inspired me about a lot of things. She was dead on that Bible, strictly from the Bible. She said, ‘I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body.’” George admits that’s what made him quit judging others.   Our original song HEART, BABY! shared throughout was written by Andy Doc Dixon and Angela Shelton and performed by Jackson Rathbone.   SCORE composed by Jay Weigel. https://thehammertruestory.com/episode-4-george

*SPOILER ALERT*  Some scenes from the movie THE HAMMER and conversations give away some gold! For those who have not seen the movie yet, you might want to save these episodes. For our fans who have seen it, you will LOVE these.   Writer/director Angela Shelton interviews Andy Doc Dixon AND the real George "The Hammer"  Martin about the divine elements of this film, their lives in and out of prison and the one scene in the film The Hammer that they both have the hardest time watching.   We have an idea to get GEORGE online to teach us boxing while we’re in quarantine, even if just for a workout. Get ready, we had this idea so that means it’s gonna happen.   We also share what we recently learned was the reason we were not accepted into any of the big festivals - it’s a shocker that we never would have seen coming!   ORIGINAL SONGS written by Andy Doc Dixon and Angela Shelton, sung by Andy with a NEVER-BEFORE-HEARD version of our title song Heart, Baby!   SCORE composed by Jay Weigel.   https://thehammertruestory.com/podcast

Writer/director Angela Shelton interviews Andy Doc Dixon about his past and how he got into reform school where he met his best friend George. We also find out what sent him to the hole in prison where he we was when George turned down the Olympics and lots of info about prisons you probably have not heard before.  *SPOILER ALERT*   There is a HUGE SURPRISE at the end that leads to Episode 3.  ORIGINAL SONGS by Andy Doc Dixon, sung by him with one teaser of one sung by Jackson Rathbone.  MUSIC composed by Jay Weigel. https://thehammertruestory.com/podcast

Here’s a teaser for Episode 2 - DOC with never-before-heard songs from Andy Doc Dixon - coming out on our soundtrack. Writer/director Angela Shelton interviews Andy "Doc" Dixon about his past and how he got into reform school where he met his best friend George. We also find out what sent him to the hole in prison where he we was when George turned down the Olympics.  *SPOILER ALERT*   There is a HUGE SURPRISE at the end of #2 that leads to a very fun #3. ORIGINAL SONGS by Andy Doc Dixon, sung by him with one teaser of one sung by Jackson Rathbone.  MUSIC composed by Jay Weigel. https://thehammertruestory.com/podcast

Writer/director Angela Shelton and prison reform advocate, Andy “Doc” Dixon, share how they met at the 140 Conference in NYC in 2010 and now 10 years later their movie about Doc’s life in prison with his best friend, boxer George “The Hammer” Martin, is coming out May 5th.   *SPOILER ALERT*   They share the FULL STORY about how George turned down an offer for freedom to fight in the 1984 Olympics to protect the woman he loved - his transgender cellmate named Crystal. Doc openly shares how he did not like Crystal when he met her and could not wrap his Catholic country boy mind around the fact that she was a born-again Christian. Find out what ruined the heavyweight champion John Tate’s career and how he became a prisoner in the same prison where George knocked him out.   Hear how Doc visited Crystal and James Earl Ray when they were both in the Special Needs Prison and how Crystal had a profound effect on Doc and changed his view of her and others. As Crystal would say, we can “Grow where we are planted.”   Music by composer Jay Weigel   Movie clips in this episode with James Moses Black PJ Marshall Mason Frankie Smith Shawn-Caulin Young Jackson Rathbone Gbenga Akinnagbe Michael Badalucco   Copyright Heart Baby LLC https://thehammertruestory.com/podcast

Here is a teaser of our NEW PODCAST “Heart, Baby!: the true story behind the film The Hammer” dropping on March 31st - International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) Writer/Director Angela Shelton interviews Andy “Doc” Dixon in Episode 1 about the full story behind how his best friend George “The Hammer” Martin turned down the Olympics. *SPOILER ALERT*  We tell the FULL STORY in this podcast. For those Heart, Baby! fans, you get to hear music you haven’t heard before and much more story. For those who don’t know the full story, this podcast tells it all. In Episode 1 Angela and "Doc" discuss Crystal and her profound impact on him. Listen to the teaser and get ready for International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV)   MUSIC composed by Jay Weigel.   https://thehammertruestory.com/podcast

Writer/Director Angela Shelton shares what we have to look forward to in the new Heart, Baby! Podcast: the true story behind the film The Hammer.  George “The Hammer” Martin became an unbeatable prison boxer with songwriter Doc in his corner and born-again Christian Transgender woman, Crystal, as his cellmate. When George was offered freedom to fight in the 1984 Olympics he shocked everyone by choosing prison over freedom, sending Doc on a journey to discover the true meaning of loyalty, love and heart, baby!