Weepin' Willie Robinson, 81, fell asleep early Sunday morning while smoking in bed after a taxi had brought him back to his Boston nursing home from a Saturday night out. He died in the fire.

The Globe's Noah Bierman and Alex I. Oster write a lovely obit for the man who lived the blues (Death comes for a musician who lived the blues) to the very end.

Most usefully, blogger Caroline Roberts at Bostonist points (So Long, Weepin' Willie) to Mount Pleasant Nursing Home's tribute page to its most famous resident. That page offers a single mp3 download of an 80-minute concert by Weepin' Willie recorded in February 2006, and links, including a pdf of this July 2006 story in the neighborhood's Jamaica Plain Gazette, with this classic detail from Willie's recent life:

Amazon offers clips from his 2000 album, At Last, On Time, offered used there or new from APO records.

Related: Blogger Carl Abernathy of Cahl's Juke Joint: A rock, blues and jazz blog pointed on Christmas Day to "Give Us Your Poor", a CD by homeless musicians and celebrities. Bonnie Raitt and Weepin' Willie do Walkin' the Dog. Samples, CD and single-track downloads at this Amazon link.

Carl also notes,

My favorite charity is the Music Maker Relief Foundation,which provides poor Southern musicians (mostly blues musicians) with some basic needs and with an opportunity to record. Music Maker's Give It Back Record Club would make a great gift, even for yourself. For $100, you get one of Music Maker's CDs every three months. You'll also help some truly deserving musicians.