If you translate Albert Camus’ famous “invincible summer” quote into a music video, it would probably look like the new “Promise of Lakes” visual from Virginia ensemble Luray.
Here’s the plotline for Luray’s new video: Jolted awake by a thunderstorm, a young girl comforts herself with a music box that emits a warm glow and the gentle sounds of Luray. No ordinary music box, the device contains secret powers, transporting the girl out of her dark bedroom and into a bucolic field teeming with life. At video’s end, our young heroine is shown rowing a boat on a lake in slow-mo.
“Promise of Lakes,” with all its deep-summer vibes, was filmed in Southern Maryland around Labor Day in 2013. The editing stretched to Christmastime, which was not the ideal season to release a sun-dappled clip, says Luray’s vocalist and banjo player, Shannon Carey. So she put it on pause — for a few years.
“I’ve just been holding onto it and waiting for the right time,” Carey says, “and feeling like it will come.”
That time is now, before Luray embarks on a short tour of the Mid-Atlantic. (The band plays D.C. Tuesday night.) But a lot has changed since Carey recorded “Promise of Lakes,” a highlight from her 2013 album, The Wilder. Luray has since released an EP and prepped a new full-length, and Carey has found herself in new circumstances.
“It does bring up emotions for me to watch something that I made at that time, because a lot has changed for me,” says Carey. “I don’t live [in Maryland], I live in Richmond now. I’m no longer with my husband who I made that with. So, yeah, it definitely is bringing up feelings when I’m watching it.”
That’s not the only thing that’s changed: The young dreamer who stars in “Promise of Lakes” has grown up.
“We filmed this puppy three years ago,” Carey says with a laugh, “so now the little girl is, like, no longer little.”
Luray plays June 7 at DC9 with Citrine and Louis Weeks.