Evie Archer at Chez Andre

At two years of age, Melissa Rosenberg asked her parents if she could take piano lessons. Not long after that, she began to write original songs. In her New Jersey classrooms, she composed songs instead of essays for her English assignments. In her freshman year at Princeton University, she wanted to be an economist, then a lawyer like her father, but kept circling back to music. Her performance of an original song won a music competition at Princeton. Now a singer-songwriter known professionally as Evie Archer, her self-titled debut EP will become available in early 2014.

At Chez Andre, a smart new music club under the Standard Hotel in the East Village, Archer sang and played electric piano, accompanied by Mikey Wax on keyboard, Oscar Bautista on guitar and Dan Weiner on drums. Archer’s performance captured the most traditional and the most basic approach of all contemporary music compositions. She wrote short verses about the turns of the human heart, led them into catchy pop choruses and sang them well. Even Archer’s long wavy hair could remind one of Carole King. Her set was short, but the highlights included an original Christmas song, “On Christmas Day,” about missing loved ones during the holidays, before ending the show with “Close to You,” an upbeat love song.

Evie Archer performs at the Rockwood Music Hall on December 17 and at SubCulture on January 15.