Gary's right, playing rock tunes on the chromatic isn't the same thing as Rock. The same can be said for playing Jazz songs on the chromatic, isn't the same thing as playing Jazz, etc..
I have to disagree.
Please remember, I didn't plan on being a chromatic harmonica maniac (which some might claim I have become). It started innocently enough, the occasional diatonic harmonica solo on the blues in C (since the high pitched F was easy to bend).
But once I was asked to play harmonica in a band (Jackstraws, 1992, San Diego Zoo), I started giving it more attention--and that ultimately led to the only logical solution to short harp's shortcomings, the chromatic harmonica.
Chrom is close enough in timbre to substitute for a variety of wind instruments--clarinet, sax, flute--by virtue of its tonal characteristics. So artists working in that genre can make it work--like all the great chrom players I could name here who are currently selling CDs and touring.
It doesn't have the kind of sound to work in the rhythm section.
And as far as the genre of Rock, which I consider to be something different than *-rock (folk-rock, jazz-rock, alternative rock, more hyphenated rock), melody is not the star. And as far as I know, there is no artist playing rock music currently selling CDs and touring.
That is why I believe that the kinds of music that will let the chrom shine are those in which melody is the king.
And standards fit that description. And I play standards . . . not exclusively, by any means, but more now that I play chrom
Knowing that rock and roll (different than Rock) came up from rhythm and blues and hillbilly music, there's more of a place for chrom there.
Let's hear the chromatic version of Wild Thing--which Hendrix made his own, he even destroyed his guitar while playing it!
(The ocarina solo from the original should be easy to copy--but the Troggs' version is considerably less heavy than the Monterey Pop performance to which I refer).
