When Wimeanacas recorded a cassette of 10 original songs in 1987, the Portland-based Cambodian band had few ideas for how to market it. A salesman friend of one of the band’s two lead vocalists, however, thought he might be up to the task of selling the 1,000 copies they’d made.
But on October 3, 1987, that salesman friend—Na Neou—and his wife, Nong, drowned in a fishing accident at the mouth of the Columbia River. A good Samaritan, Mark Raz, also died trying to save them.
Nearly three decades later, someone else is hoping to give that excellent recording the chance to reach the audience it always deserved. This new chapter began when Warren Hill, of Northeast Sandy record store Little Axe Records and the label of the same name, wandered into WAC Automotive on Southeast 82nd Avenue, looking for one of the band members. Hill had recently found a few sealed copies of Wimeanacas’ cassette at Thai Cam, a video and food store on Southeast Foster, and had fallen in love with what he heard. Based on scanty information, he tracked down the band’s keyboardist/songwriter Holica Saang Youen to the auto shop; he didn’t know at the time that he’d also find the band’s other lead singer, Sovann Youen, who happened to be Holica’s wife. Hill told the couple he’d like to re-release the recording on vinyl.
“We’d been looking for that kind of guy for a long time,” says Holica.
“A little bit late,” Sovann laughs—Wimeanacas had stopped performing all the way back in 1992, as the Youens focused on running their business and raising a family.