Another Letter from America: John Moten Freeman, writer of 'What Would the Profit Be"

(I've just posted this over at our Thompson Brothers Music blog, but thought it would be of interest to some readers here as well). We received the marvellous email below just last weekend, which we are posting here unedited with permission:

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Hi Lads,

I discovered your music after a Google search for “What Would the Profit Be”, and so very much enjoyed your “brother duets” from Youtube and your website.

I am a lady in her 60s that lives in Georgia, USA. My father is John M. Freeman, one and the same who wrote “What Would the Profit Be”. I was aware of the Bill Monroe recording but didn’t know about yours. I bought it from iTunes but I would like to know if you have any more CD’s as I would so much love to have a “real” CD. My dad would be so proud. He was a deeply religious man and musically talented. He was born in the southern Appalachians in the little town of Gerton, North Carolina in 1879. I was the last of his 14 children by two wives. I was born when he was 68 years old and he passed when I was 14. He was a prolific songwriter.

Here he is in 1903 in front of a blackboard that he had prepared his Sunday School lesson for Henrietta, NC Baptist church. He was descended from the Scotch-Irish that settled in that area in the late 1700s.

Thank you again for a wonderful recording, your voices are heart-stirring.

Best Regards,

Martha Freeman