Vothuong cannot convey in a letter all his feelings to his wife and two daughters in Vietnam. Certain thoughts are censored by the communist goverment, which screens every letter and package going or leaving the country, he said.
   Vothuong- who taught himself to play music guitar in 1962- tries to convey those feeling through music. He records songs in Vietnamese on a reel-to-reel at his Westminster home and copies them on to cassettes, which he sends to his family and sell in Vietnamese record stores to raise money for refugees.
   Vothuong- play's a mixture of original melodies and popular Vietnamese tune of the 1960s and 1970s. The songs has lyrics, but Vothuong does not sing them when he records because Vietnamese officials might consider them subversive, he said. In such a case, the tape might never reach his family, he said.
   Vothuong said he hope his family will understand his feeling when they listen to the sentimental manner in which his plays his guitar. He has not seen his wife, Thuan, or daughters Diem,20 and Khanh,17 since 1975." I speak to their soul" with the music, he said. They may remember the lyrics, which generally are sorrowful and melancholy like the melodies, he said. " Did you ever cry by yourself" Vothuong asks in the song he wrote " Did you ever cry over the memory of Lost love? The rainy night of the past is gone, and you come to me so cold with frail shoulders".
   Without lyrics the music is not as sad, he said. " My music feels like peace of mind. It lets people relax and forget something in their life." Vothuong said.
   Vothuong has makes 18 tapes, and he named the latest one "Melodies of Lost Dream" which he delicates to US soldiers who fought in Vietnam. When he was a Vietnamese infantryman. Vothuong said, he saw: Young men with shinning eyes fighting for our country. Many of them died there, many others left parts of their bodies there- they all left part of their soul there. Copies of his newest recording will be available in Vietnamese record stores in about three weeks. Vothuong said. All profits from the sale of the tapes will be donated to Vietnamese refugee organization in Thailand, he said.
   Vothuong, who owns a Santa Ana furniture store, estimated that 1987 he earned about $12,000 from sales of the 12 tapes he record that year.
Vothuong said his tapes are popular in the Vietnamese

community, he said he has been featured in dozens of Vietnamese magazine articles. many of magazines have reproduced of lyrics he can not include on the recordings. The tapes of his music have been played in Europe and throughout the US-and even in Saigon, Vothuong said.
   Vothuong made his first recording three years ago after receiving a letter from his daughter Diem who asked why he never had sent a tape of his music. He sent several copies of his first effort and enclosed a letter addressed to custom official. The letter urged the officials to listen to the music and offered three copies for them to take home to their family. At least one of the tape arrival at his wife's home, he said. His wife responded to that first recording with a poem.
   Vothuong set the poem to music and sent the music back to his wife.
"You come to me as the golden leaves that fall softly amidst the bewildering night", She wrote " You left me suddenly like a storm that takes my soul, flying high, far away...(we are) thousands of miles away, waiting and wanting in misery."

Guitarist Vo Thuong has produces seven albums, whose profits go to Refugee camps in Thailand