Looking for electric or acoustic? Not much difference in acoustics for either blues or country.

In electrics, you'll often find a hollow body model used for blues and country. (Though solid bodys are also used extensively for blues.) More choices here than I can easily mention.

More important than the brand or type of guitar is getting an instrument that feels right to you. Since you're just starting, it probably doesn't matter all that much that you get something in particular. If you find yourself really getting into it, you're going to be buying more guitars anyway. (I currently have 17 of them. Acoustic and electric.)

Best for you would be to go to a music shop and "feel" the differences. (You won't be able to play much if you're just a beginner.) Does it feel right in your hands? Can you easily press the strings down to the frets? Do you LIKE it? For a first guitar this is all you really need to be concerned about.

As far as price, that's a variable too. Once you know what you're looking for it will be easy to find a great axe for a decent price. If you want something great to start, then you just need to spend more money. Once you really know about it, you can start perusing cheaper models. The biggest difference between high priced guitars and cheap guitars is quality control. Quality control costs money. Assembly line guitars have little quality control and that helps keep the cost down. It also means that guitars far better than the specs get through the line at a lower cost. Paying more up front is paying for the assurance that someone else has already determined that this guitar is worth more and detailed correctly.

Sounds like you need to take a day and go shopping!

If you are starting out with guitar I would start with acoustic. That is what I started on.

haaaaa! me to

Count me as another newbie (the nickname might have given it away). I was at the local small shop and he was a fan of an Austin guitar. Don't know much about them and I believe it was the rock standard model I was looking at (sub $200). Any experience with them? Advice on choose them over the standards (Epiphone, Squier, Ibanez) for a 1st guitar?

I would go with the standards, but that's me.If you find a guitar that suits your fingers, yuo'll know. Takamine is also a good guitar. Hell, my first guitar was a Washburn.

Something very standard and regular (exept if youre a skilled guitarist)

Something like a Fender-squire Stratocaster