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

We received the marvellous email below just last weekend, which we are posting here unedited with permission:

.................

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