Suffer in Peace

Background and development

While touring with Brantley Gilbert and Jason Aldean on their respective tours for promotion on his debut album Redneck Crazy, Farr started performing material that would be part of his next record. He expressed wanting to move into a more traditional direction following the critical reception of the album's title track and "Whiskey in My Water" and the positive reviews given to "A Guy Walks Into a Bar". This gave him the mindset to work on material that was more than just typical country radio singles. Farr chose the album title Suffer in Peace because it had a dark underpinning to it and that there were two opposites in the words that make up the title. For the album's track listing, Farr co-wrote three songs and chose the rest based on what he felt represented his life and spoke to him as an artist.

Music and lyrics

Opening track "C.O.U.N.T.R.Y." was described by Farr as a "rural country anthem" that he could picture being played at a party in his hometown of Missouri. The song utilizes a swampy banjo groove that's described as sounding like "Hank Williams, Jr. backed by ZZ Top." "A Guy Walks Into a Bar" uses the bar joke as a setting for a brokenhearted man in a bar. Farr discovered the song during a writers' round that was being held at a bar he was at. One of the co-writers, Jonathan Singleton, was playing the song and was asked by Farr if he could record it. "Withdrawals" is a break-up song about relating that kind of pain to addiction. Farr said that this was the last song to be added to the album and he was fascinated by the demo consisting of a piano and drum loop as its overall sound. His vocal delivery over the production was something he chose that made it transition from a country song to full-on storytelling. "Damn Good Friends" is a duet with fellow country singer Jason Aldean about genuine bonding with a true friend reminiscent of Tracy Lawrence's "Find Out Who Your Friends Are". Farr got the idea to have Aldean on the track when he was working on it and thought that it rung true about his camaraderie with him over the past year.

The title track is about a man who finds seclusion in the wilderness after being heartbroken by his ex-girlfriend. Farr explained that it represented what he felt was the entire theme of the album, saying that it played out like an intriguing book and that he didn't care that it wouldn't be played on the radio. "Raised to Pray" is about a teenager reveling in late night antics while reminding himself of his religious upbringing. "Better in Boots" is a bro-country song about telling a woman that her cowboy boots look much better on her than anything else she's wearing. "Poor Boy" revolves around a man with rural roots wanting to get a chance with an uptown girl. "I Don't Even Want This Beer" is about dealing with your problems by hesitantly drinking alcohol. The album closer, "Why We Live Here", is a tribute to the troops song. Farr said that he wrote the track while on tour with the Navy in the Persian Gulf and that he wanted it to have class and not be overly patriotic.

Singles and promotion

The album's first single, "A Guy Walks Into a Bar", was released to country radio on August 18, 2014 to build up hype for the album. It gave Farr his first number-one country hit on the Billboard Country Airplay chart. Its 42-week climb to that peak was the fifth longest climb to number one in the chart's 25-year history. It was certified Gold by the RIAA on April 17, 2015. A music video directed by Jeff Venable was created for the single and released on Farr's YouTube page on October 17, 2014. A second single, "Withdrawals", was released on June 15, 2015 but was only able to peak at numbers 47 and 52 on both the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts respectively. A music video directed by Eric Welch was made for the single and premiered on June 15, 2015. The third and final single, "Better in Boots", was released on August 17, 2015, following the studio's decision to remove "Withdrawals" from country radio and instead push for a more upbeat and female-friendly single. It peaked at number 26 on both the Country Airplay and Hot Country Songs charts respectively. A music video for the single, directed by Eric Welch, premiered on Farr's Vevo page on November 6, 2015.

On the album's release date, Tyler promoted it by performing "A Guy Walks Into a Bar" live on NBC's Today. On November 18, 2015, Farr announced that he will co-headline a tour with Lee Brice called the Life Off My Years Tour, beginning on February 4, 2016 in Salisbury, Maryland and ending on April 3 in Toledo, Ohio. A week before the start of the tour, Farr revealed that he required surgery to remove a polyp from his vocal cords and be put on vocal rest, leaving Brice to fill his spot with Maddie & Tae, Clare Dunn and Jerrod Niemann.

Critical reception

Jewly Hight of Billboard gave the album high praise for Farr's vocal performance on tracks like "A Guy Walks Into a Bar" and "I Don't Even Want This Beer" that show both grit and grain while also revealing a bit of vulnerability in places, concluding that "Along with moments devoted to sentimentality and rural pride, it all adds up to one of country's richer portraits of masculinity in recent memory." AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine found the album's pacing a bit slow without any party songs, despite praising ballads like "Criminal" and the title track for their charms, saying that "these would've been placed in sharper relief if there were a fast tune or two as contrast." Anthony Easton of Spin felt the album contained nondescript country instrumentation and character portrayals despite tracks like "Poor Boy" and "I Don't Even Want This Beer" being standouts, concluding that "When Farr gets introspective, he’s worth hearing, but he doesn’t do shallow well, and it’s a shame that’s his norm with only a couple exceptions per full-length."

Personnel

Credits for Suffer in Peace adapted from AllMusic.

Chart performance

The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 4, and the Top Country Albums chart at number 2, selling 36,300 copies for the week, and 41,629 units in total album activity (including streaming and TEA). The album has sold 100,500 copies in the US as of November 2015.