Primary structures, including beds and laminations, are overprinted by four sets of curviplanar structural-metamorphic S-surfaces in rocks of the Neoproterozoic Grandfather Mountain Formation of western North Carolina. The S-surfaces include a penetrative, but diffuse metamorphic foliation (S1); diffuse, ductile deformation zones, in part characterized by thin structural laminations (S2); discrete, ultramylonitic (ductile) thrust fault zones (S3); and spaced joints (S4). The structural laminations of diffuse, ductile deformation zones and some of the thin mylonitic fault zones mimic primary bedding, laminations, cross bedding, and cross laminations leading to errors in paleocurrent and structural analysis. Intense deformation along deformation zones, especially in the central part of the Grandfather Mountain Formation, has resulted in a stacked series of thrust faults and intervening, mesoscopic isoclinal folds that, combined with the metamorphic foliation, accommodate a significant amount of shortening.