By Melody Hanatani
Daily Press Staff Writer

WEST L.A. The sound of plastic compact disc jewel cases clanking into each other filled the air as a pair of hands frantically rifled through a row of albums.

Finally, the hands reached their destination — a solid white tablet with the name of an artist who after decades had finally reached the ultimate benchmark in a career, a record album.

PEACH smiled at the sight of her name, standing in the Wherehouse music store on Wilshire Boulevard. She flipped the white tablet and saw the reason for her special trip — “PEACH LIVE!”

It was in that euphoric moment in 2002, standing in front of a music bin, when PEACH had finally seen a lifetime goal realized.

“I was so excited I had finally gotten my CD, seeing a bin with my name on it,” the musician said. “I felt like I had finally gotten my stuff out there.”

It’s been a long musical journey for the blues artist from Anderson, Ind., with its pit stops and detours, some with career-affirming moments, others a bit more jaded.

It’s a journey that has taken the Santa Monican across the globe, from the youth church performances in her hometown, to the genre-departing years in a classical music school in Colorado. Pit stops have included six months spent in Osaka, performing in concerts and learning the Japanese language, and 10 years circulating the club circuit in San Francisco, residing in the famous Haight-Ashbury district during the 1970s.

The musical foundation was laid at a young age when PEACH, which is the artist’s legal name, sat in her family’s mid-western home, listening to her mother playing the piano, usually focusing on the blues. By the age of 11, PEACH was holding her first electric guitar. By 16, she was rocking it in front of screaming crowds.

“I wish I had (the guitar) today because it would be really worth something,” PEACH joked during an interview on Thursday.

Following her college years at the University of Denver in a classical music program, PEACH moved to San Francisco where she spent years performing the club circuit, all while becoming familiar with the computer trade at the time.

“The computer business was something I could get a handle on,” PEACH said. “It gave me a good relief to be able to take care of myself financially.”

The 1980s brought PEACH to the Los Angeles area where she continued to split her time between her music and computer work. Calling herself a “geekette,” PEACH decided to place music on hiatus and concentrate solely on computers in the early 1990s after a series of incidents that left her a bit disillusioned by the music industry.

“I call it my musical remission phase,” PEACH said on Thursday from the Santa Monica home in which she moved into seven months ago.

It was during that “musical remission” phase that PEACH welcomed her daughter, Gina Segall into the world.

The artist could not stay away from her musical passion for too long and in 2001, PEACH was called out of temporary retirement. Her comeback, a performance at a close friend’s wedding.

She knew she couldn’t let go again.

The debut album came unexpectedly. It came in the form of an unauthorized recording that someone made of her performance at an open-air concert in Riverside. PEACH purchased the rights to the recording for $50 and turned it into her freshman album. After being named the Blues Artist of the Year by the L.A. Music Awards in 2001 and an Award of Excellence in 2002, the album gained some steam and distribution skyrocketed.

She followed “PEACH LIVE!” with her sophomore album in 2006, “PEACH The Real Thing,” a compilation influenced by the artists’ personal heroes, including blues musician Taj Mahal, with whom she duets in the title track, and Garth Hudson.

Today PEACH is busy concentrating on her next album on which she plans to work with blues musician Keb Mo. But her next big project will be an upcoming two-week concert tour to Copenhagen.

“I’m a poster child for late bloomers,” PEACH said. “I meet young women thinking their careers are over at 23 and I’m still committed to my dreams.”

melodyh@smdp.com