My X-ray vision’s a bit sketchy, but I think there’s a new circle of hell being built for the idiot(s) who broke into The Rudyard Kipling last week.

Sometime between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday evening, said idiots cut off the alarm and stole a 28-channel Yamaha soundboard that the club bought last year following a break-in. Also stolen were an eight-channel board used for jazz and bluegrass shows in The Rud’s gazebo area, three monitors, an employee’s bicycle, two 15-inch speakers, booze and grub. “They even took the time to eat some nacho cheese and potato chips,” owner Ken Pyle said.

Pyle said the thieves then exited the club by kicking out the back door, which he admits did not have a chain or padlock: “I’ve got a padlock now.”

The Rud isn’t the only Old Louisville business to suffer a recent break-in: Two interns for “Shakespeare in the Park” had their bikes stolen.

Rud bartender/booker Aerin Heusmann said that only one show had to be canceled, and bands and friends have responded swiftly, helping to find new sound gear or bring their own for shows. If you have any information that might help solve the burglary, please call Metro Police at 574-LMPD. 

‘Twos & Fews’

Haven’t heard of Nimrod Workman? You will soon. Workman, a Martin County, Ky., native who worked as a coalminer in West Virginia, sang numerous unaccompanied ballads and appeared in the documentary film “Harlan County U.S.A.” Workman died in 1994 at the age of 99, but his work lives on, thanks to Twos & Fews, a vernacular music label created by Nathan Salsburg, whose releases will be distributed through Drag City Records.

“I just couldn’t believe that Drag City would be interested in taking a chance on, literally, an 87-year-old ballad singer who sings unaccompanied music on open-reel, quarter-inch tape,” Salsburg said of Workman’s release. “They’ve shown themselves to be really interested in taking chances.”