Dissecting "Unanswered Prayers" by Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks finds the best kind of disillusionment at his high school homecoming in his 1990 hit "Unanswered Prayers". Nostalgia reigns in this early example of Brooks's sweet spot, but what is it about his brand of neotradionalist country music that keeps this song so gloriously local as we wistfully revisit it all these years later?