Thanks to a music-centric upbringing, household chores often felt more like play than work to three siblings, who’d one day grow up to compete and win first place on The Voice as a trio.
“Dad would blast U2 in the car, and Mom had us clean the house to Jackson 5 and ABBA,” said Bekah Liechty, one third of the folk-pop group Girl Named Tom.
While growing up in a small town in Ohio, Bekah and her two brothers, Caleb and Joshua Liechty, loved jamming out to music, playing instruments, and singing, but they “never dreamed of being in a band one day,” Bekah said.
Caleb and Joshua were in their early 20s and Bekah was 19 when they embarked on their first concert tour as Girl Named Tom in 2019, via minivan. Four years later, they’d tour the country once again, but this time on a proper tour bus, supported by roadies, booking agents, the whole nine yards.
One of the stops on their current tour is the Solvang Festival Theater, for an outdoor concert on Friday, Oct. 6. The show will mark the trio’s first visit to Santa Barbara County.
During the band’s stay in Solvang, Bekah said she has a brief list of boxes she’d like to check off, including getting food at peasants FEAST and seeing some sights downtown, namely all “the cuckoo clocks and beautiful buildings,” she said.
While the trio is widely known for their pop covers and original pop tunes, the three Liechty siblings have been avid fans of various genres of music since childhood.
“My brothers and I have shared similar tastes in music from early on. On Sunday mornings, our parents played classical music on the stereo, and we loved going to the symphony,” said Bekah, who also enjoyed tracks from Disney musicals and Broadway shows growing up. “As a girl, I remember my mom singing me to sleep with the song ‘Castle on a Cloud’ from Les Mis, and I just wished one day I could sing like her.”
Bekah added that her father would often play guitar and sing songs that he wrote himself specifically for her and her brothers, which in turn inspired them to try writing their own songs and eventually pursue a joint career in music as a trio.
When it came time to name the band Girl Named Tom, Bekah said the choice was inspired by a nickname her brother Joshua bestowed upon her during childhood.
“Joshua might have been going through a Thomas the Tank Engine phase when I was born, or maybe he wanted a little brother. I’m not sure,” Bekah said. “My parents thought the Thomas nickname was just hilarious.”
When Girl Named Tom competed on The Voice in 2021, the trio went into each of their performances on the show with “high standards, but low expectations,” Bekah said.
“We performed the same music on The Voice stage that we did in a room full of 12 people on the 2019 minivan tour,” said Bekah, who added that the band felt “so humbled and encouraged by the support from millions of viewers across the nation” after winning the competition.
“The Voice changed my life forever, and I couldn’t be more grateful,” Bekah said.
Looking back on her favorite memories—both on-screen and behind the scenes—while participating in the show, Bekah described her experience on the set of The Voice as a rite of passage.
“I did not go to college, so I look back on The Voice as something of a college experience,” Bekah said. “I made many friends, my brothers and I grew in our artistry, and learned much more about the music industry as a whole.”
In between filming episodes, Bekah said that she and her brothers became fast friends with some of the show’s other contestants, who were all housed near each other throughout production, amplifying the college vibe.
“My very favorite moments were spent in the park next to the hotel we were living in,” Bekah said. “We played music, wrote songs, played kickball, soccer, and talked late into the night.”
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood has always preferred kickball over soccer. Send comments to [email protected].
