Norah Jones Is Playing Along
Original podcast
Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos of Y La Bamba joins Norah for an honest talk about heritage, identity, and songwriting.
6,702 words · 15 speakers
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Hey, I'm Norah Jones, and today I'm playing along with Ilah Bamba.
Hey, I'm Nora and with me as always is Sarah Oda.
Welcome to the show.
Our guest today is Ilabamba. We sit down with singer-songwriter, guitarist Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos to talk about their influences, growing up with traditional Mexican music styles that lend themselves to the art of storytelling.
This was such a fun episode. I just love their music so much. So it was really fun for me to meet them and get to share this time with them and play music.
I know you touch on this in the episode, but they sing in both Spanish and English, but it's like you don't have to understand what's being said to feel like your heartstrings are being pulled on.
Yes, I don't speak Spanish and I don't know what the meaning is, but it just feels so emotional when I hear it.
It's so powerful to transcend language with music.
I loved hanging with Luz and I'm so happy to share this episode with you. So please enjoy Ilabamba.
OK, so one, two, one, two, three, four.
Tanto tiempo, tanto tiempo sin hablar contigo, sin saber de tu bienestar. Extraño tu manera cuando andas conmigo. Háblame de toda diferencia que no se para, aunque duela y encontrará que los brazos de otro nuevo acarilio.
Se ven como se ven, se ven como se van.
Se ven como se ven Se ven como se van
Y tu manera de ser Y tu manera de ser no me falta para que Perder el tiempo Ya ves cuando las cosas no se dicen Se ven como se ven Se ven como se van
Ya ves cuando las cosas no se dicen Se ven como se ven Se ven como se van Take away
Ya ves cuando las cosas no se dicen Se ven como se ven Se ven como se van
Durante el mediodía el resuelto me encuentra vacía me dejo llevar con el puro sentimiento Durante el mediodía el resuelto me encuentra vacía me dejo llevar con el puro sentimiento me dejo llevar con el puro sentimiento
me dejo llevar con el puro sentimiento tararara ta ta ta ta ta ta ra ra ra ra tu ta pa pa ta ra ra ra ra
That was fun. That was from the new record.
Yeah.
Or how old is the record now? Like a year?
Yeah, probably. I mean, I wrote a lot of these songs like during the shutdown.
And so now I'm like, oh.
They're pretty heavy, right?
Yeah, I mean, and then a lot of people, when they interview, I don't know, when you get interviewed, they're like, "Tell us about the record." I always forget to talk about a lot about the production part of it, where I'm like, "Yeah, I just got things together and da, da, da, blah, blah." Because I'm just learning, you know, I'm learning as a producer as I go along with like good engineers and stuff like that. And like, but a lot, like when I hear the record, I'm like, "Cool." Like sonically, that's what it sounds like. But the words and all of that are like very COVID, very in that time, very during the whole George Floyd, like the uprising, the everything. It's hard not to like, be like, "What happened?" Like time traveling? What is still happening, you know?
Yeah, well, it was an intense time and... I mean, I feel like it all comes out and when you're writing, how you're feeling and that makes a lot of sense.
Did you record all this stuff in a studio? Or did you sort of piece it together? Did you do a lot of stuff at home or?
I did everything. I did stuff. I worked a lot with my, um, my friend, Ryan Oxford. He's the engineer that I've been working with like the last couple of records. And he and I collaborated, I like on Hughes, he like did like, he did the production on that, like he did the guitars. I mean, we did it together, but he already laid out like this beat and this guitar. And I was like, oh, this is awesome. So we, we did that on that song. And then the rest were, you know, me just changing some songs a little bit here and there. And until I finally was like, oh yeah, this is it. And then when I moved to Mexico and I finished it, like I added like percussion and bass and stuff like that. Moving to Mexico and doing that was like the incentive, like the incentive. Is that the right thing to say?
I don't know, like the, the moving force of that and like having me meet community and musicians and stuff. Like kind of using like me finishing my record there, being like, oh, like I'm meeting people.
With, with more local musicians down there.
Yeah, there. And but yeah, I always make the same mistakes though too. But that's another conversation, you know, just as a woman and like as a divergent person in the studio. And like so many things I can go on and on and on that I'm like so shy about talking about. But it's, but at the end of the day, like that's part of the process.
Mine, you know?
Yeah, well, I feel like everybody has their own and it's not, there's no wrong way to do it. And whatever makes you comfortable is the way you should do it, you know?
Yeah, it's interesting trying to tailor that.
Trying to figure that out.
And I feel like it's a never ending learning process too.
I've made a lot of records and I'm still like, wait a second, I shouldn't have done it like that.
I know, but, but that's the way it was done.
That's just the way it was done.
Yeah. And then, and then that's, and that's part of the growth, the growth of it all, you know? I don't know how it's other people's. See all of that process of being a creative or just being like this, you know, open channel. I don't know, there's like, there's limited language for it. But just like being this, just available for it to come out or whatever, you know?
Yeah, well, that's kind of, that's the most sensitive part of the job, right? And it's the part that is unpredictable. And for me, that can be frustrating, but I feel like if you're open, it finds its way in and out.
I feel like making records, I think it's so fun and I love it. And I love being creative in the studio.
Yes.
I don't like to overthink things. I like to do a lot of off the cuff takes and, you know, I don't like to over, overthink the music. But then when it comes down to finishing it and mixing or something, I get really like taskmaster.
Because if it doesn't sound right, the way I know it sounded in a rough mix or something, I get, God, I drive people crazy.
Because you already heard what it sounded like.
Exactly.
You have different, you have context of different versions. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I drive, I'm driving people crazy right now. But the process, you know, of doing it is so fun.
Man, we can go on for a long time.
I know, it's so fun. Well, so you live in Mexico City now. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in, um, so I was born in California. My mom's side of the family, they slowly started to migrate to California, like the 99, Highway 99, like harvesting fruit and nuts. So they lived in the migrant camps and worked out of them for, that was like the, the lifestyle, like in the late 70s and stuff for them. And then my dad crossed the border with a coyote three times, ran through the river, through a tunnel.
Oh, my God.
You know, but that was like, that was in the late 70s, 80s.
Okay.
Late 70s. And then I was, you know, born 1982, raised in Southern Oregon, even though I was born in California, went and visited a lot in California, spent like a lot of, had my quinceañera there, my baptism, like all the, all that stuff.
You're part Californian.
Yeah, I feel it, even though I wasn't like, didn't go to high school there or like anything, I spent a lot of my time there. And like, it was awkward for me in Southern Oregon. We also only hung out with Mexican families and Mexican communities in Southern Oregon. So this is an interesting upbringing. I'm trying to skip all this other stuff, but. And then I moved to Portland when I was like 24.
You weren't in Portland. You didn't grow up that you were in.
No, in Southern Oregon.
Was it a small community?
Portland or the?
No, where you grew up.
Yeah, it's a small, it's a small little town. It's like, it's beautiful. Southern Oregon's beautiful, like Grants Pass, Ashland, Medford. Medford was where I went to school and all that.
But we all, we had a huge, large population of Mexi, like, you know, of a Latino community in Southern Oregon. Portland was just way later until like 24, 25.
Okay. And then did you live there till you moved to Mexico City a few years ago?
Yes, and then I.
Oh, so that's really your, you've been there a long time.
I moved to Guadalajara in 2019. I mean, I was like pretending, I'm like, yeah, I moved to Guadalajara. But I was touring a lot and then the shutdown happened. And when the shutdown, I was in 2020, 2019, December, and then 2020, January, I was in Mexico City. I was like, I'm gonna try Mexico City next.
That's cool. And you love it?
And then I did on tour, we went on tour Duran Jones, and then tour ended in February, February 29th. I stayed in LA. I was like, super like, came off of like a really awesome tour. I was all positive and stuff. And then March 4th, you know, I'm in a hot tub looking about all this COVID shit and COVID corona. And then I went to Portland because I had a job with a choir, with a high school choir. So if I didn't have that, I would have just went back to Mexico. So I stayed in Portland for the whole duration of that time. So I was already done with Portland.
And then you had to be there.
But it was about the same time, like, I'm sure you can relate or empathize. It felt the safest place to be during that time.
Well, at least it was familiar.
It was super familiar.
Mexico City was awesome. I made friends, but I was like, so like, this is, what the hell?
What you might not have if you had to be isolated.
You know, like, what am I gonna be isolated? Someone who works new and huge in Mexico City? No, I don't think so.
That would have been really scary, I think.
I think it would have taxed my mental health in a different way.
So when did you make it down there finally?
A year and a half ago.
Like, for real, with my dog. I brought my dog and.
Nice.
But it's also part of my neurodivergent way of organizing myself and thinking about identity and my roots and stuff. Like, I have to be in Mexico to do all that work. Like, it's so visceral for me to be there. Like, my parents are not from Mexico City. They're from like. The the sticks of, you know, they're like, they're ranchers.
Tiny town.
They come from like, working the land and stuff.
Okay, not even a town.
They didn't go to school.
You know, stuff like that.
Wow.
There's a whole other story that I don't want to bore you with about like, what I know about my family's history. But the whole like, like trying to decolonize and all of that, you know, like for me, being in Mexico is where it starts.
When I, when I actually do that work of decolonizing and understanding like, my diaspora, my roots, my, my, being biracial and like, what it all means and like, everything, just like, I think being there is like, so humbling. Because the conversations are different and they're necessary. And I need to hear them as like, a Mexican-American in Mexico. So it's like, I'm glad that I'm out of the context of the nationalism of being just American here. But being put in a place where traumatized my parents and informed and shaved my parents and my culture. So it's like, I grew up with it.
Mm hmm.
So I'm there and it's familiar. I'm like, that's why it's, that's why, it's not, I'm not saying it's easy, but it's visceral, it's natural to be there.
But there's so much more that I need to educate myself in a way that they couldn't educate me of another part of Mexico. That I, that I'm like, whoa. Like the politics and the.
The, so much, so much stuff.
It sounds like a real.
So it's like my ayahuasca, even though I never done, I've never done that, but I'm like, whoa. I'm like, face to face with like this machismo, the capitalistic, the trauma of like, all of that. You know, like, it's just, and Mexico is a different face, you know? And the United States is a different face. But being there and see what it did to my parents and what it continues to, you know, all of it. It's all, it's all the same root. It's all the, the root of violence and power and, you know.
Yeah, that is the root of it.
And all that stuff.
Well, and also, you're just, you're just like, diving right into your own self by being there, probably. You know?
And you're, you're finding out more and more about yourself.
Yeah, it's very humbling. Forty-one and like, trying to not take space, but then take the space. You should come, you should come and visit.
I would love to. I've only spent, I've only been to Mexico City a couple of times and I got, I got really, I think I got altitude sickness both times.
I would get bloody noses the first few months that I was traveling back and forth.
Really?
It was wild. I would wake up and I'm like, what?
Everyone always tells me it's the best city and the coolest and every time I get there, I just, I gotta like stay in bed. I can't, I can't hang.
That means you have to be there for a month?
And wait, get the sickness for like, get rid of the week long or whatever it will do to your body and then just like.
You talking about that makes me think of something that is so, for me, because my dad was Indian and I didn't really grow up. I went there a couple of times when I was little, but I didn't really grow up in that, with that side of my family so much. But I always wondered what it would be like to really go and spend time there. I've spent, I have spent time there, but like to live there would be a whole other thing.
There's not a lot of Mexican-Americans that I know that are living in Mexico City.
There's this reverse assimilation shit going on or something.
I'm still trying to unpack it all. Like that's why I like hesitate talking about it, but I'm like trying to find the root. I'm like, oh yeah, like there's certain similar things from code switching in spaces or American culture or whatever. Because I grew up in just like Mexican, you know, all, you know, those type of conversations of, I don't know. Just know, just knowing how to participate in a different, like your culture's political affairs or emotional affairs, spiritual affairs, like ancestral affairs, like all this stuff that just, you know, there's people that don't care about these topics or they do, but I just can't help it, you know? I'm like, oh, like, like we are like algorithms of our ancestors, you know, like these ancestral algorithms.
That is true.
You know, like, and it's, for me, it's if we have access to, and it is a privilege to like, you know, investigate where you come from or go to that, to go to the country where your parents are from or like, but there's not a lot of us in Mexico City that get to experience, you know, Mexico City. Mexican, like Mexican-Americans that come from communities that we came from, like migrant, you know, like that.
It's interesting taking that space and I don't want to be like, hey, in the United States, we talk about identity politics like this and so, you know, like you don't, you don't, you can't apply that shit.
No, it's like a whole different way of being, right?
Yeah, and I wonder what it would be like. You know, I'm sure I can empathize with you. Like, I'm hearing a little, I don't know you, but like, you didn't grow up with that side of the family, but that shit will never go away.
That shit's like so you, I'm sure, right?
Well, and I'm close to them now, and I was close to my dad, you know, after age 18, so I, it wasn't like, it's not like they're complete strangers to me, but having not grown up in it, it's a weird place to be.
It is.
Like, to feel like I'm not really a part of it.
In between.
Yeah. Even though they're kind and welcoming, once I was a part of it, it's different to grow up in it than to be on the outside of it.
Mm-hmm.
So. Who am I?
Yeah, yeah.
Just looking.
Oh, God.
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But what did you listen to growing up? Did you listen to just traditional Mexican music?
Thanks for asking that question. I grew up listening to, so the music that informed my ears, my spirit, my brain, my whole environment was Mexican music.
It was corridos. Corridos like, and música norteña, like Ramón Ayala, Los Bravos del Norte, Cornelio Reina, música del campo, like from, I can send you playlists.
Like Las Gilguerías, Las Palomas, Dueta Azteca. You know, duets.
Like, like from like the ranch, like just.
Uh huh.
And then there's a lot of music that I grew up listening to is kind of misogynistic now, but it just didn't age well, but it's still nostalgic for me. Like a lot of like those corridos, you know, are like, but it really tells a story of how people are living, you know? Even if it's like, you know, and then also seeing like misogynist, misogynistic men singing, there's that deep wound of, the deep wound of patriarchy, the sensitive man just like singing, like it's the only way to like express their emotions. At least I'm saying it from like the men that I grew up with, and my dad specifically is like such a macho dude, but like they don't share their emotions, but they will definitely sing a song on top of their lungs, you know?
That's amazing.
And sing along. And I'm sure like a lot of like cultures are similar, like, I don't know, the American culture is like something totally different.
I'm not sure, but.
Yeah, it's not, but like, I know, I know in Mexican culture, like when we emote and like mariachi music too, like son tradicional de tierra caliente, le son tradicional. Like it's just, you're emoting, you're like saying something, like Juan Gabriel, you see that guy, you know, rest in peace, when you saw that person sing, holy crap, you know that person was with conviction and saying something. And a lot of the men would watch and be like, oh, like kind of uncomfortable from like their homophobia and seeing a gay like man really just sing, but like they couldn't help to empathize and be like, oh, I feel the same, I feel like this pain, because they can identify but not, you know, like. I still love that music.
I love, love, love like all the guitars, like the rincintos. And even a lot of the lyrics. I didn't grow up listening to boleros though, that much. Boleros and mariachi. I grew up listening to mariachi, but boleros was more commercial. From what I hear, I understand. It was more like around. It was beautiful. Boleros are beautiful.
Okay. I don't know all the difference between.
There's, I'm learning. Guapangos, boleros.
I mean, I know mariachi probably the best.
It's very commercial. That's why.
It's commercial, okay.
Or like, commercial in the sense where it was more, um, what's that word? More accessible? Or it was, I don't know the right word, but boleros and mariachi was the stuff that you always heard around. It was like the most go to. And then all the corridos and ortegenas, I think were. I think a lot, there's a lot of classism too, with like, the type of music that people listen to. Like, I would like, people would discriminate, like, música from a ranch. It'd be like, oh, you're from that class. You're like a rancher, so you listen to that type of music.
Would it be comparable to like folk music?
I think so.
From back in the day?
I think so. I, I always tried to find, I always tried to compare, but you, you know, at the end of the day, you can't. Cause when you talk about Indian folk music, you're like, you can't really compare it to like.
Or no, American folk music.
Or like, go to American folk music. But even, it's like, kinda, it's not the same. You can't compare Indian folk music with American folk music.
You can't compare Mexican music to.
Totally.
American folk music. But it is, it could be somewhat similar in that sense.
Yeah. Home, strumming.
Singing.
Together.
And picking, guitar picking.
No like, you know, huge production. Right, okay.
Yeah. You asked me to sing a song of yours, which I'm stoked.
You wanna do it?
Has this been released on anything?
No. I don't know, you know what I do? I'm really bad. So I do a lot of songs live. I don't record them. There's a lot of songs that I'm like, la la la. Oh, Crema de Melón. Crema de Melón is also not.
On.
That one too.
But we, we should do this one.
Let's do this one.
So you'll sing.
I'm gonna, you could, I'm gonna sing it. I can't sing it like you, but I'm gonna sing it like me.
Yes. I'm excited.
I'm excited.
I always like, I wanna write songs for people to sing and I just get really intimidated.
I've never done that. I've never written something for someone else.
Isn't too. I have imposter syndrome intimidating, but I want someone to hear. I wanna hear someone else sing my song, you know?
Yeah, I feel like it's a different mindset and it's, it's hard to get in there. And feel confident about it. It's also, I feel, I do think sometimes it's hard for someone else to sing your song like you. As good as you.
Yeah, don't sing it like me.
No, but I mean, to embody the feeling and the actual soul of it. Is hard to do when you didn't write it. And the people, you know, great interpreters are of course, can do it, but. I mean, I, I could imagine like, you giving a song to someone and then thinking, hmm, I think I could do better. Cause you're so good.
What? I'm really, I'm into, I'm intimidated. I've been writing, so I wrote a song for my friend Emma. She's gonna put it on a record and she's learning how to produce herself and she's, she's learning the whole like, asking me questions like, hey, so I'm recording with this guy. He's asking me for this much, like she's asking me these questions, you know? And I was like, here, here's a song, like, I don't care about royalties or anything or whatever. I wrote a song, you put it on your record and like, I'll produce it for you or whatever. And, and you don't owe me anything because no other fucking dude is gonna give that to you. You know, like it's a clock.
You know, like, people are like, okay, time is money. But sometimes like we, I don't know, especially as a woman, for me, like, we need a little bit of like, you know, a learning curve. We need like space, you know, more space.
Yeah, it's hard to know how to go about things sometimes.
The reason why this is so hard is because, well, now that I know that it's been recorded and everything.
Now you're overthinking it.
Well, yeah, I'm like, oh, no, because I'm just like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And also, just, it's so different, like, having people watching you.
Oh, I know.
And I just met you.
It's hard to process, just like, meeting, yeah, come on.
Oh, it's a weird thing. I know it is, totally.
Okay, so.
Safe space, though.
So, the beginning of the song is.
Oh, yeah. You start from the beginning, and then I'm gonna come in.
This song, too, has a lot to do with not masking anymore. A lot of the words are just like, part of my healing journey of learning who I am as a person in this world. It's like, seeing like, something, something ain't right, I know I can tell. It's like, always knowing that I've, you know, just been a little different, not just from, um, trauma, ancestral trauma and stuff like that, but is just way more, so much more complex. And being on this journey, being later diagnosed, and trying to process all those feelings, unpack all of that, like, kinda like, where you're not, I won't be ashamed, darkness awaits, silence unknown, I'm still recovering,
it's like wrapping my bones all in my body, like, being conscious of my physical body and the spirit that's holding it, carrying it around.
And then the part of like, how curious, I'm curious what will be done now.
Like, the curiosity of what we're going to do as a people, as a community, as, you know.
Yeah. I can feel that from these lyrics, but it's, they're so clear, but also so universally applicable.
It's like, the best kind of song, right?
You know?
I'm talking about eating yogurt.
No, you're definitely not, but, you know, not, but, not in a shallow way, in a, in a deep way.
Totally, I feel you.
It's like, that, that simple prayer kind of thing, I think.
Hi, I kinda like singing hi.
I also write songs that are not my register a lot.
On purpose, or just because you're...
On purpose, just because I like, I can't, I hear him that way. And I like seeing him like that. But when I'm live, everyone's like, they can't hear me. You know, but I'm singing in my falsetto and like, just, I like it.
It's a vulnerable place to sing. I think that's probably why it rings like more true.
But I love it.
Should we just go for it and see what happens?
I'm all.
Something, something ain't right.
I know I can tell.
Where you're not, I won't be ashamed. Darkness waits.
Silence unknown. I'm still recovering. Wrapping my bones, all of my body. As my spirit wanders around. I'm curious what will be done now.
I might give a damn.
Patience may change, like the rain in the summer. Truth might not be the same.
Candlelit corners as my eyes face the night. Healing all the pain.
Can't believe it's been a year. Drove me away to disappear. Nothing to prove, to take.
What is life if we fade?
I think I might give it a try. To breathe as deep as I can take.
I might give it down.
And then the fairies came out of the sky.
I loved that.
That felt really beautiful.
And that's a, I've never sung, that song has never been sung out loud.
But.
What's the recording you sent me from? Was it a demo or was it from a show?
No, it's a demo from my house. So you hear the lady outside selling.
I heard that, yeah.
She wasn't, she's not selling anything. She's, it's this audio recording you hear all throughout Mexico with all these trucks trying to pick up like your old mattresses, your old like refrigerators or appliances and they, and they pick them up, like recycle them.
So you hear the.
And I laughed. And then it's, I started singing immediately and it didn't even, she was outside but didn't even, or it was outside, didn't even keep going. So it was like a perfect time to.
That's great.
Go in the song.
It's funny in the beginning, that first part, it almost felt like Irish to me or something.
Cause you heard the.
No, just the way the melody is and the, it was funny. I was singing it. I was like, I feel Irish all of a sudden. That's strange.
Yeah, I don't know. I have 1% Irish in me.
It's so funny how, how the different ways of singing in completely different parts of the world sometimes just sort of are similar.
You know what I love? I love, I love Indian music and the, the non-conventional, the non, um, the intervals, like all, like all the hidden in-betweens.
Cause that's what the world is. There's no binary. So when you look at a, when you look at a fret, to me it's binary.
Yeah, yeah. It's straight.
Because there's like.
But, and it's also like in this, uh, what is it tuned in? In this like American, Western, kind of like whatever. But then you see all this, the fluidity. I feel like when you go, I'm so, super ignorant, but like India is so fluid with so many things.
Oh, it's a, it's a huge, big.
It's non-binary. It feels non-binary. It feels like there's a place for so, so much spirit and so much, um.
But I don't know.
I don't either.
So that's why with music, I'm like, oh, like if people are playing, you know, different cultures are playing like music that is like a violin or like, you know, a symphony. It's like you can just really capture so much more than like the
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's beautiful.
I love it.
It's funny, too, with piano. It's very like, I can't bend any notes, but
But you can bend your vocal note.
Yeah, totally.
What's up? That's what's up.
That's what's up.
Well, um.
This was great.
Yeah, I mostly just, I really wanted to meet you and just be in your presence and hang out. And I'm, after this, after I walk away, I'm gonna be like, what the hell just happened? What did I do? What's going on?
We'll send you the recording and then you remember.
All right, well then.
Thank you.
I guess this is it.
This was awesome.
You were great.
Nora, you were great.
It was so fun.
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If you're a music fan, I've got a new podcast you have to check out. It's called Before the Moment, a new series hosted by the legendary Nile Rodgers. You know him as the producer, songwriter, guitarist, and co-founder of Chic. But in this series, he's hitting the road to sit down with some of today's most fascinating artists. From hitmakers like Miguel to rising stars like Alex Warren, Nile explores the stories behind the careers, the songs, and the moments that changed everything. Because every artist can point to that turning point, the moment before the breakthrough, before the success, before everything changed. Through candid conversations and personal stories, you'll
hear what happened before the moment that made them who they are today. Listen to Before the Moment, a Lincoln Original Series, on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Ah, that was so nice.
That was great. They're such an open and beautiful soul.
Yes, very open, and I was really thankful for that.
Felt very connected to the music.
Yeah, it was great. I learned a lot.
The first song in that episode was "De buhos de mi alma", which came out in 2023 on the album called Lucha. The second song we did is called "I Might". I had so much fun singing that song. Thanks again for listening. Today's episode was recorded by Matt Marinelli, mixed by Jamie Landry, edited by Sarah Oda, additional recording by Jamie Landry, additional editing and mixing by Matthew Vasquez, artwork by Eliza Frye, photography by Shirvin Lainez, coordinating producer Rachel Ward, produced by Norah Jones and Sarah Oda. Hey, that's me and you. Yeehee.
If you love music and great artist interviews, check out "Before the Moment", hosted by Niall Rogers. This new series follows Niall as he travels across the country talking with some of today's most fascinating artists about the moments that shaped their lives and careers. From hitmakers like Miguel to rising stars like Alex Warren, Niall explores the stories behind the careers, the songs, and the moments that changed everything. Because every musician remembers the point where everything changed, and this podcast tells the stories that came before it. Listen to "Before the Moment", a Lincoln original series on iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Hello?
Hey, it's me, your wallet.
Oh, hey.
I was just wondering if we could maybe take it easy this week?
Absolutely.
Yep, I'm shopping at Food Lion.
Wait, you mean low prices?
And MVP savings.
Oh, you do care.
Obviously.
Okay, I feel better.
Good, now let's go get some snacks.
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Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated