CBA Selects When You Got a Good Thing by the Kivett Bednar Band as This Year’s Best Self-Produced CD

This fall, the Cascade Blues Association invited independent Blues artists to submit their recordings for the Blues Foundation’s Best Self-Produced CD Award, presented as part of the International Blues Challenge (IBC).

We received four submissions from three artists:

• Kivett Bednar Band, When You Got a Good Thing
• Sleeper Wave, Live at the Alberta Rose
• Johnny Wheels & the Swamp Donkeys, Ain’t Kroked Yet and Live at the Levitt

The CBA board gathered for a listening party to hear each recording, and after much discussion we chose Kivett Bednar Band’s When You Got a Good Thing as this year’s CBA representative. Want to hear it for yourself? Buy the CD or download it here.

This one has a special backstory. The Kivett Bednar Band was the first recipient of the Anthony Roberts Cascade Blues Association CD Fund in December 2025. Created through an endowment in memory of Anthony Roberts, the fund awards $10,000 to help a Pacific Northwest artist record and release their first commercial Blues CD. Seeing that debut album now represent the CBA at the IBC is exactly what the fund was meant to make possible, and Anthony’s name lives on with it.

Congratulations to the Kivett Bednar Band, and thank you to every artist who submitted. We’re proud to share and support Blues made here in the Pacific Northwest!

The winning CD has already been sent to Memphis for review and judging by the Blues Foundation. The Best Self-Produced CD winner will be announced in January as part of the IBC competition. Support Pacific Northwest Blues and get your copy of When You Got a Good Thing while we wait for January!