South Bend band Girl Named Tom nails 'The Voice' audition. Work with Kelly Clarkson next.

Girl Named Tom had been scheduled to perform at the Goshen Theater on Oct. 1. But when the show sold out and demand for tickets remained, the South Bend-based group — Caleb, Joshua and Bekah Liechty — moved the concert to Goshen College’s Sauder Concert Hall. 

If things go as they hope over the next few months, Girl Named Tom will be looking for even bigger venues in the future. On Monday’s season premiere of the NBC singing competition "The Voice," the acoustic pop trio advanced to the show's competitive stage.

"It was very validating to receive that chair turn from four of the biggest stars in the century,” Joshua said Wednesday morning while the three headed home to South Bend from visiting their parents in Archbold, Ohio.

Band chooses Kelly Clarkson on 'The Voice' season premier

Monday’s and Tuesday’s episodes were the “blind audition” rounds of the competition, in which the four celebrity judges listen to each act with their chairs turned to face the audience. If an act appeals to any of the judges, they hit a button that turns their chair around to face the performer.

In Girl Named Tom’s case, all four judges — Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Ariana Grande — turned their chairs while the siblings sang Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Helplessly Hoping.”

After some playful banter between the judges, a few questions for the siblings and pitches from each judge for them to join his or her team, the group chose Kelly Clarkson to be their coach.

“We really like how versatile Kelly Clarkson is in her own music,” Bekah said about their choice. “She can sing anything from country to pop. She’s just so amazing.”

Clarkson also was the first judge to turn her chair, and, Bekah said, that “played into it. They’re all great artists, but I think we made a really good choice with Kelly.”

Moving to South Bend

The siblings call the small town of Pettisville, Ohio (pop. 538), their hometown, but they moved to South Bend last year because Joshua’s girlfriend is an Indiana University medical student in South Bend.

The pandemic also played a role.

“After the pandemic hit, we were all kind of holed up in our parents’ house,” Joshua said. “We wanted to branch out and have some more space. We said, ‘Move to South Bend? Yeah, sure.’”

But they had other ties to the area, too: Caleb, 26, and Joshua, 24, both graduated from Goshen College, in 2018 and 2019, respectively. In 2019, they formed Girl Named Tom with Bekah, 20.

Monday’s episode of "The Voice" was taped, and since then, the Liechtys have worked with Clarkson on some songs — they’re not allowed to disclose much more than that.

“Kelly Clarkson, for being as famous (as she is), I was surprised by how warm and easy it is to be with her,” Caleb said. “We’re in a room with a dozen cameras and producers, and she’s totally at ease and makes us feel the same.”

Up next, Girl Named Tom will enter the “battle” round, where the trio will face one of the other acts on Clarkson’s team.

The two biggest challenges that they feel on “The Voice,” Joshua said, is in preparing their next song and in being away from loved ones.

“We were out there for a month practicing before the blind audition,” he said. “A month of practice for two minutes of show time. You’ve got to make it count.”

Sibling harmony, and who’s Tom?

During Monday’s appearance on “The Voice,” Joshua pointed to Bekah and said, “She’s the girl named Tom.”

When Bekah was a baby, Caleb and Joshua called her “Thomas” and admitted there’s been speculation that they wanted a younger brother, not a sister.

Since then, though, they’ve become a tight harmony unit, as their many videos on YouTube attest, with their covers of such songs as YEBBA’s “Evergreen,” a medley of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”

“We grew up with a lot of traditional four-part singing in the Mennonite church,” Caleb said. “We really pride ourselves on our three-part harmony. People tell us siblings have an instrument that nobody else has, the three-part harmony.”

They also grew up with a love of acoustic music that, Bekah said, stems from their childhood, when their father would play acoustic guitar and he and their mother would sing to them.

All three also play a variety of instruments: guitar, piano, flute and non-drumkit percussion instruments, such as the cajón, with an emphasis on acoustic arrangements.

“We want to highlight our vocals,” Bekah said, “so in performing, we keep it pretty stripped down so that can shine through.”

All four judges on “The Voice” exuberantly praised the three-part harmony on “Helplessly Hoping,” but Shelton also said one or more of them will have to step out front at some point as a soloist.

That will come, Caleb said Wednesday, if they continue to advance on the show.

“One of the most remarkable things about our sound is how at one we can be,” he said. “Yet we all have very different voices. … We hope to bring that out in the future on the show, to show off each of our voices separately.”

A dream come true

So far, Girl Named Tom has released three albums independently — “Hits From the Road,” “Another World” and “23” — posted several videos on YouTube and toured nationally.

“The Voice,” obviously, has taken them well above where they had been.

“We had just done so much work,” Caleb said about the band’s pre-pandemic touring. “We had been touring and playing shows for 12 people in basements. To be on a stage like ‘The Voice’ was just remarkable and pretty powerful.”

For Bekah, performing on a singing competition show has long been a dream, back to when she would “spend hours alone singing” as a young girl.

“Since joining the band with my brothers,” she said, “I didn’t feel it was right to leave my brothers.”

But when they heard that “The Voice” accepts duos and trios, they decided to audition.

“I was able to have my dream,” Bekah said, “and bring the boys along. … I know, and I really feel in my heart, what I have with my brothers and what we have together is far better than anything I can do with only my voice.”

On TV

“The Voice” airs at 8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays on NBC.

In concert

• Who: Girl Named Tom

• When: 8:30 p.m. Oct. 1

• Where: Goshen College’s Sauder Concert Hall

• Cost: $15

• For more information: Call 574-535-7566 or visit goshen.universitytickets.com

• COVID-19 policies: Face masks must be worn at all times while indoors regardless of vaccination status, and either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test (within 48 hours of the concert) is required for entrance into the venue.