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.

That could be partly why Sandcastle Man, the forthcoming EP from Carey’s atmospheric group Luray, sounds so exploratory. Its concept is inspired by someone drummer C.J. Wolfe encountered on a trip to South Africa: a man who made his living building sandcastles and posing for photos with them.

Carey wrote lyrics to accompany Wolfe’s music for the song. She says it’s a fable about finding one’s way back home while facing trials, and describes the work as a metaphor for her own journey from her native Wisconsin.

“I know I can always go back to real home,” Carey says, “but there’s the part of you that wants to see the world and be an adventurer while also trying to find where you fit in.”

A former D.C. resident who now lives in Richmond, Virginia, the singer and banjo player debuted in 2013 with a serene release called The Wilder. Her second full-length, out in 2016, promises to chart new emotional territory in the aftermath of her breakup with her husband.

“The first record was more about trying to find myself as a creative person,” Carey says, “and [the next] one is more about relationships.”

Since her first album, Carey has built a new set of important relationships — with the people now in her band. She says she met Wolfe halfway through his music studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, and became acquainted with bassist Brian Cruse and guitarist Scott Burton through Bon Iver trombonist Reggie Pace. (Carey’s brother Sean also plays in Bon Iver.) They bring fresh elements to her sound, including notes of jazz and the mbira, an African finger piano Wolfe brought back from his travels.

Carey’s family members and friends contributed to her first album, but she wanted to find musicians to play the songs live with her.

“I still write the songs, but they do all of the instrumentation,” Carey says. “I bring a song a practice or send it to them and they write their parts and then we all work on it together.”

Recorded at D.C.’s Rock & Roll Hotel, the EP — out Nov. 17 — includes a “space-agey” remix of the single, courtesy of Snow Panda. (Stream the remix below.)

“The whole thing sounds really trippy, but really interesting,” Carey says of the remix. “We told Snow Panda to have total freedom with the strong and do what he thought sounded cool. It’s really different from what we normally do, but really fun. Kind of whimsical.”

Luray performs Nov. 8 at 2206 1st St. NW in D.C.