He was born at Saalfelden Farmach, an Austrian camp for displaced persons, where his parents, who were Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust in Russia, lived for a short while after World War II.
As a young man Krakowski took to the road, working with the Conklin and Garrett Shows carnival and later toured for some time with blues-singer Big Joe Williams.
On this record, and on those that followed, he was accompanied by The Lonesome Brothers, starring roots-rock veterans, multi-instrumentalist Jim Armenti and bass guitarist Ray Mason.
Krakowski made a considerable impact in world music circles with this record, and the rights to it were taken over some years later by the well-known avant-garde recording company Tzadik, led by saxophonist John Zorn, who in 2002 released Krakowski's second CD in Yiddish: Goyrl: Destiny.
In 2006, Krakowski and Jim Armenti produced the CD "Di Alte Kashe" (The Eternal Question: Fraidy Katz Sings Yiddish), also on Kame'a Media.