Iļģi, the popular "post-folk" music group from Latvia, has scheduled a September tour of several East Coast and Midwest cities in the United States.

The concert tour, said organizer Anna Rūtiņa of Los Angeles, is in part aimed at getting the group a North American record deal. "There is a buzz in the world music community about Iļģi," Rūtiņa told. This is not the first time that Iļģi will have been in the United States, but it is the largest tour that the group has had in North America. "I'm a big fan of Iļģi and (group member) Gatis Gaujenieks has been a longtime friend of mine," she said, explaining her involvement in bringing the six-member band to the United States. The group, led by fiddle player and singer Ilga Reizniece, is expected to offer different performances depending on the audience. Non-Latvian audiences, Rūtiņa said, will mostly hear selections from the band's latest recording, Sēju vēju, released in 2000. "We've been calling them the Varttina of Latvia," Rūtiņa said when asked to compare Iļģi to a better-known world music group. Varttina is a Finnish group that over the course of its albums has moved from traditional Karelian sounds to a more rock-oriented sound. Latvian audiences will also hear songs from the band's previous album, 1998's Saules meita, as well as be able to participate in traditional dances and games. At present, the tour has no sponsors and proceeds from tickets sales are expected to go back into financing the tour.