Midnight Rose, the fifth track on Brett Aaron’s newest record Save Myself, is a standout for a number of reasons.

For one, it’s the album’s first single. The ballad features not only Aaron’s beautifully smokey vocals but warm slide guitar from Canadian expat icon Colin Linden, a Nashville-based musician and producer known for playing with Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, later versions of The Band, Bruce Cockburn and even Bob Dylan.

It also has one of the album’s most interesting narratives, a somewhat Tom Waits-ian tale about a lonely man who frequents a bar to seek the company of an equally isolated prostitute named Midnight Rose.

“They keep each other company,” says Aaron, in an interview from his Calgary home. “It’s not based on the money so much but it’s a horrible situation they both find themselves in and they find solace in each other. Maybe it’s not the most healthy thing, but that’s what they’re doing.”

Aaron is quick to point out that the story is definitely not autobiographical.

“That one has nothing to do with me,” he says “It’s just stuff I’ve seen in dive bars over the years.” — but a story song in the grand tradition of Waits or John Prine.

In fact, it came about almost as a songwriting challenge. Many of Aaron’s songs on Save Myself were co-written and co-produced by Ron A. McNeil, an Airdrie-based songwriter who worked with Aaron for over a year during weekly Sunday sessions.

One day Aaron told McNeil about his new guitar, a John Mayer-issued Silver Sky that comes in various shades. Aaron’s was “midnight rose.”

“I think I had just gotten it and was like ‘check this out, it’s a cool colour: midnight rose,'” Aaron says. “He said ‘Midnight Rose. That’s a great song title. That’s what we’re writing next week.’ So we did.”

It’s proof that inspiration can work in mysterious ways. The 11 songs on Save Myself are a mix of deeply personal songs and narratives. It is officially Aaron’s third album. For many, he is probably still best known in Calgary as a blues guitarist, backing acts such as  Brent Wright, Donald Ray Johnson, Kenny (Blues Boss) Wayne and Mike Clark. He also had two previous solo albums — 2018’s Livin’ to Play and 2023’s Breakless Heart that were released under the name Brett Spaulding.

Choosing to release Save Myself under his first and middle name was symbolic move to some degree, he says.

“It’s a delicate line, you want to be open to someone else’s ideas,” he says. “The way I describe it sometimes: They maybe want to go to Spain and you want to go to Portugal. They are both beautiful places. This one I wanted to keep close to me.”

“That’s why I went under my middle name instead of my last name. too. Just to put some separation between the previous projects and this one. Because this one sounds like me. I was searching for that before. Funny enough, I stopped searching for it and just did the work and it came out that way.”

In keeping with the mix of personal and polished, the drums and bass tracks were recorded in Nashville. Aaron and McNeil worked with some heavy Music City session pros. That included bassist Alison Prestwood, who has recorded with Brooks & Dunn, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Blake Shelton and toured with Rodney Crowell; and drummer Greg Morrow, who has played with the Dixie Chicks (now the Chicks) and on Aaron’s favourite Steve Earle record, 1996’s I Feel Alright. Linden recorded his part at his own Nashville studio.

But Aaron decided to finish off the album back home, opting to record most everything else at Calgary’s Audiohouse Recording Studio or in his own studio space.

Musically, the album is far from straight-ahead blues, although those elements are there. Opening track, Last Night, is John Mayer-esque pop-rock that showcases Aaron’s prowess on acoustic guitar, while Love Struck is a mainstream country ballad. Many of the songs dig deep into Aaron’s personal life. The mid-tempo title track is about his past struggles with addiction. The soaring Your Fool is a tender tune about his ability to make his wife laugh every day. Closing track, Ice in the Yard, is a song about his late father, who died in 2017.

“That’s about my dad raising the rink in my backyard when I was a kid,” Aaron says. “There’s a little bit of a hint in there, in the bridge, that he passed away but I didn’t make it too obvious. He was kind of a stern guy. He could have fun too, but later on in life I realized that’s how he showed his love. He worked his ass off to do everything for us and I didn’t appreciate it at the time. He was working 10-hour days and than he’d come home and stand outside in the cold flooding the backyard. That’s a huge thing but you don’t know that when you’re 12 years old.  You’re just like ‘when’s the ice going to be ready?'”

Aaron’s own life has changed considerably in the past few years. He married his wife, Sara, in 2024. Their first son is 10 months old. Earlier this month, he purchased a house in Calgary’s southwest.

“Me and my wife never thought we’d get married — neither of us, individually — never thought we’d have kids, never thought we’d buy a house,” Aaron says. “Here we are. You never know where life can go. Who knows what is going to happen? It makes it pretty busy. This kid doesn’t stop moving, which is great, but it’s exhausting for us.”

Most of the songs on Save Myself were written before Aaron had settled into this newfound domestic bliss, but he imagines it will soon filter into his writing.

“For me, sometimes stuff can come out right away and sometimes I need to reflect on things for a couple years before it comes out in writing,” Aaron says. “I definitely notice if I sit down and say ‘I’m going write about this today,’ it never seems to work. If I put down what is hitting me in the moment and then I find an in line and think ‘maybe this is what it’s about.’ I truly believe the song will tell you what it wants to be. You just have to follow it.”

Save Myself is available on streaming services Friday, Sept. 4.