As far as many of us are concerned, Eastwood is a place to the south of Glasgow and a poncho is that thin bit of plastic you use to keep the rain off at T in the Park.

Not so for Woodenbox. This band's love of spaghetti westerns goes deeper down into the melodramatic music of Ennio Morricone, the plaintive blast of a mariachi trumpet and even, once upon a time, a bit of dressing-up for effect.

"When I first started doing acoustic stuff after moving to Glasgow with Nick [Dudman] the drummer, we were just having a laugh, wearing ponchos and doing free gigs to fill some time," explains singer Ali Downer.

"I met Phil [Cardwell], who's the trumpet player, at an open-mic night and asked him if he fancied coming down to play on one of the songs we were recording at Stow College, and it clicked straight away.

"I'd just got into Ennio Morricone, and you know when you discover something that everyone else knows but you feel like you're the first person to pick up on it? I remember thinking it was cool and that if we did something with it, we'd be dead different."

And so Woodenbox With A Fistful Of Fivers was born. Studio work at Stow continued, debut album Home And The Wild Hunt came out on the college's Electric Honey label, and the band gathered a fervent following for their full-on, high-rollin' live gigs.

Now, as the story reaches chapter two, things are getting more serious. The band name has gone from cinemascope to academy ratio, their second album was recorded at Chem 19 Studios with producer Paul Savage, and the final result, titled End Game, is being released by Olive Grove Records (home to State Broadcasters and Jo Mango).

Batting away accusations that the music is tongue-in-cheek pastiche, each of the 10 new songs works its socks off to win over new fans in Scotland's burgeoning and ever-inventive indie-folk sector.

"We'd dropped the Fistful Of Fivers bit, thinking 'we're Woodenbox and each album's going to have a different thing about it'," says Downer. "And then you put the two albums back to back and you go, 'They're not actually - that -different,'" he laughs.

"It's still got all those wee bits, but I think that's the natural flair of what everyone's doing. For example, Jordan's guitar's got that natural big reverb sound."

Right on cue, guitarist and co-writer Jordan Croan chips in. "But there's the sound of so many things on other tracks as well. Soul, for example, especially on [new single] Courage. We were trying to get that crossover between soul and a Lee Hazlewood-type sound."

As we chat in a Glasgow cafe, other slightly unexpected reference points crop up. I throw in Elvis Costello And The Attractions, which is definitely there in the vocal performance on Beautiful Terrible. I'm about to say that some of the rinky-dink piano frills (Kings Liar, for one) remind me of Scottish popsters The Supernaturals, but I hold my tongue.

Downer relates how, when recording track six in the album's running order, Everything Has A Price, Savage encouraged him to seek out Alex Harvey's version of Next, and how they'd already been fans of Scott Walker's Jacques Brel album. Has that theatrical storytelling quality of Brel and Harvey's best work rubbed off on End Game's lyrics?

"I think it would sound weird if we tried to do something like that because it's all about brothels and hookers, and that's not really us," admits Croan. "It would be a bit fake if we did that."

"A lot of the songs on this album were written with my late 20s head on, when I was in a weird place and living in a weird flat," says Downer. "I had this junkie neighbour and I was feeling like I was in a confused place. Without being cheesy, a lot of the songs are a bit are-you-doing-the-right-thing-being-in-a-band-what's-the-point? But then Jordan wrote a few of songs as well, and when we brought them into the studio and changed them, it lightened up a little bit."

"A lot of them were quite literal, now they're more observational," adds his bandmate.

It's fair to say Woodenbox's reputation rests primarily on their energetic live sets. And, at the risk of being guilty of carrying coals to Newcastle, their Tex-Mex flavours went down exceptionally well when they played the South By South West festival in Austin.

"After SXSW we went to Dallas, Fort Worth and Denton," Downer says. "And they were the best gigs ever. It just felt right. We played one bar that we found out later had been busted for a big heroin ring, and it felt like that Tarantino movie Deathproof – a big drive-in Tex-Mex place.

"It was cool, though, and I remember thinking we should get visas and play there all the time. Tell people we were locals, swig back beers and margaritas, have the trumpets playing -We got such a good response. More female attention than we've ever had in this country."

I can understand why they went down so well. Their upbeat attitude to live gigs is a bit like the blue-collar value-for-money agenda Bruce Springsteen has espoused. "Absolutely," Downer agrees. "I think every gig you go to is like a wee lesson. There's been stuff I've thought is great musically but when I've gone out to the gig, I've not necessarily come away feeling overjoyed by what I've heard. I totally believe it's all about our performance. It's all about the hour that people are there, that they're loving every minute of it and wish it would go on. I think we've just about got that down – well, so people tell us."

Even when drenched in mariachi music, Woodenbox aren't a band who could be accused of blowing their own trumpet.

Woodenbox play Grand Ole Opry, Glasgow on Thursday. End Game is released on Olive Grove Records on May 27.