At least once a month, strains of Zydeco, folk and Cajun music resonate from Borders Books in the Canyon Pointe Shopping Center, on West Charleston Boulevard near the Las Vegas Beltway. It's probably the only place in town to hear unique arrangements to songs like "Russian Lullaby," "Singing in the Bathtub" and "Jalapena Lena."
The three musicians performing there are a family group known as Patriozeb. The name is a catchy way to bring all their names together as one.
Pat Nole is the father who sings and plays guitar. Rio Nole is the mother who sings when not playing the clarinet. Zeb Nole is their adult son and handles the African drums, adding vocals as needed.
Their next performances at Borders are slated for 6:30 p.m. Friday and March 24.
At Borders, they perform in the cafe, which seats about 100. Like other groups who perform at Borders Books, Patriozeb is not paid to appear at the book store.
"Well, we get free coffee and drinks," Zeb said.
Instead, they sell DVDs of past performances.
Zeb, 26, was born into a stage-business family. His mother was a dancer in the Tropicana's "Folies Bergere" and also appeared with special shows at the Sahara and the Aladdin. She danced under the name Rio and was six months pregnant with him when she quit the stage.
Rio opened her own dancing studio, the Rio Nole Dance Arts in the valley. She ran it for 11 years and Zeb grew up learning to dance.
He went on to study with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, the San Francisco Ballet School and Pacific Northwest Ballet School, where he received full ballet scholarships. He is now a principal dancer with the Nevada Ballet Theatre.
Pat also came from a family involved with the stage. He met his future wife when he worked behind the scenes for "Folies" as a stagehand.
Danielle Galuppi, booking coordinator for Borders, said she was approached by the trio and read glowing newspaper reviews about them.
"So I took a chance on them," she said. "They're fun and customers seem to really like them."
The trio works around Zeb's ballet schedule. Besides Borders, they've also appeared at local restaurants like Soul To Soul and the now-defunct Enigma.
The family has a repertoire of about 45 songs and is working on writing original music.
"Zeb, he comes up with lots of ideas," his mother said. "He'll pick a lot of songs that keep up with things kids his age would like."
Patriozeb is working on a CD, expected to be finished by summer. For more information, visit www.patriozeb.com.
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