: Are there any brands good or horrendous
Brian,
Band saw blades are pretty generic these days. In the US there are probably two or three firms that make the basic steel used in the blades and probably half a dozen frims that grind or lasar cut blade stock. Various manufacturers buy this stock and make up blades from it. Local shops and even users can do the same thing, as Rehd mentions. As long as you buy domestic stock you should have no quality problems.

I agree with Rehd go with the widest blade your saw will handle. I think a 4 to 6 tooth per inch is about right. For cedar I'd go with four. You might want to look at a resaw blade which is intended for heavy ripping. Many of the blades sold now are "hardened" which makes them brittle. Any attempt to set or reset the teeth will break or crack them. Set, or the sideways offset of the blade is important to clear the kerf so your blade will not bind or wander. If your set wears away or becomes uneven from side to side, toss it. As long as sufficient set remains the blade can be sharpened. For a ripping/resaw blade the cutting face of the teeth are ground 90 deg. to the direction of travel, that is, perpendicular to the body of the blade. This can be done on the saw with a die grinder or Dremel like tool and a clyindical diamond stone. You can shapen a blade until the set is ground back so far it has no effect.

Shawn,
I think having good, sturdy, low friction in and out feed tables for your saw is more important than a long fence. Both hooked and straight stock will mill fine with your stock fence as long as you can control them and keep the back of the stock against the fence at the point the blade enters it. Even a 1-1/2' wide blade will cut moderate curves, say a 2-4 foot radius depending on the set.

If you want to mill a long continous hooked stock (that is, stock with a curve parallel with the plane of the saw table) you may want to shim the stock away from the in-feed end of the fence so that at the blade the stock is tangent to the fence. You should feed with the belly of the hook toward the fence. The outfeed should take care of itself. Watch the hook in the stock. As you mill it the hook may change as internal stresses are relieved. If it straigtens out, you'll want to remove your shim. It may even take on a reversed hook, that is, a curve with the belly away from the fence. In this case flip it and try to evenly relieve the stresses. Hope this helps.
George C.